Francis Okinyi
The Video Assistant Referee popularly known as VAR came into use in the English Premier League in the 2019-2020 season.Its use had already been tested in the FA cup and the Carabao cup in each of the two last seasons.It had also been employed in both the German Bundesliga and the Italian Serie A it was also used in the 2018 world cup ,the worlds’ largest sporting event.so what is VAR? the Video Assistant Referee is the use of video technology to make more correct decisions in football matches.VAR only intervenes in the course of a match where the center referee has made an obvious error in one of these key four areas .
First and foremost when it comes to the allowing and disallowing of goals .The VAR is only consulted when a goal has been scored and errors like shirt pulling and any other misdemeanor which is resultant to the goal might make the goal be chalked off.It is worthy to note that clear and obvious errors do not relate to offside,The player is either offside or onside.There is no idea of a little bit offside or a little bit onside and this is allegoric with pregnancy where one cannot be a little bit pregnant but pregnant definitely.A player might be offside even with inches and this would result to the goal being disallowed this happened during Manchester City Vs West ham match.
The awarding of penalties is perhaps the most controversial decision that the VAR is mandated to perform.Penalties can be awarded or rescinded depending on the technicalities of the errors performed.In this case the center referee would run to the VAR monitor by the pitch and make a determination whether the penalty is lawful or not.
violent conduct and reckless tackles can be awarded for straight red cards by the
VAR second yellow cards vests with the referees.
finally ,VAR also handles cases of mistaken identity where a wrong player is penalized and the guilty player allowed to go Scot-free.There is a famous incidence between Kieran Gibbs and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain in Arsenal’s 6-0 thrashing at Chelsea in 2015 such injustices could be repaired with this technology.The system is limited to only these four areas to avoid constant disruption of the game.
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