From inique to public. From the opacity of a management to the sharing of knowledge. This is what football now wants to aim for in order to free itself from the weight of arbitration decisions that are too controversial to continue to turn a deaf ear. To open up to the world, you have to open the microphones. In any case, it is an opinion more and more shared, and encouraged by the convincing results obtained in rugby where the sound system of referee judgments has largely eased tensions.
Cleavage, that’s how we could define it. Some have adopted it definitively, others prefer the nostalgia of “it was better before”. Video refereeing assistance, more commonly known as VAR, has transformed refereeing in football. However, five years after its first experiment, there are still many reflections on how to improve and perfect the current system. The subject did not escape the Arbitration Days, which began Wednesday, October 20 for 10 days.
“VAR has become such an essential element in top-level football that if it was removed tomorrow, nobody would be happy”, noted on this occasion Arsène Wenger, director of world football development at Fifa, and sponsor of the Arbitration Days, which are celebrating their twentieth anniversary. Although it has become “essential”, the VAR brought with it its share of problems. Because the controversies around its use have become commonplace in football.
‘VAR..APALO’
en nuestra portada de este moons #portada #deporte https://t.co/b00guyGVVi pic.twitter.com/wnizu6Dy3V
– Mundo Deportivo (@mundodeportivo) October 10, 2021
Real support for the referee, this technological tool brings its share of interpretations. The latest controversy occurred during the final of the League of Nations, between France and Spain, where the debate was launched as to the offside position or not of Kylian Mbappé. If his goal gave victory to France, it also fueled the fire of critics, especially in Spain.
Although football is not the only sport to use video refereeing, it is nevertheless the one where disputes arise most often. Why such an echo? First, because VAR is still relatively new in the world of football, compared to rugby where video refereeing already has ten years of experience. In 2016, the International football association board (Ifab) officially introduced the video assistance experiment for referees. In France, Ligue 1 begins to use it from the 2018-2019 season. Internationally, the 2018 Men’s World Cup is the first major global event to incorporate it.
Another reason: the lack of transparency when using it. Indeed, unlike rugby, spectators and viewers have no access to slow motion, or to the referees’ explanations. What to create misunderstandings and frustrations. Faced with this observation, football leaders, Fifa in the lead, are therefore considering adopting the approach chosen by the world of the oval. “There is a problem with the explanation of referee decisions in top-level football, confirms former Arsenal coach Arsène Wenger. This is also why I am in favor of opening the microphones, in order to allow a better explanation. ”
This project is also already discussed within Fifa itself. “At first, I think it will be interesting to relay the conversations between the referees when using the VAR. This would add interest to the supporters who would better understand the decisions taken ”, continues Arsène Wenger. “Opening the sound system would allow supporters to better understand VAR, and therefore educate the public in video refereeing”, confirms Gaël Angoula, former professional player, and referee in Ligue 2.
“Today supporters do not necessarily know the conditions of using VAR.”
Gaël Angoula, referee in Ligue 2to franceinfo: sport
Arsène Wenger goes even further: “Secondly, we can also imagine that the transparency is total, in other words that the spectators and televiewers can hear the words of love that the players and coaches send to the referees”, he slips with humor. A redesign of the model which would therefore make it possible both to reduce protests from supporters and the feelings of injustice of certain players or coaches, but also to improve the respect and behavior of all players in the field.
Laurent Cardona, Top 14 referee, is in a good position to judge, he who has been “connected” to the green rectangle for more than ten years. “Opening the microphones in football would be a real benefit for the viewers and if possible – because it is more technologically complex and very expensive – for the spectators in the stadium. If they could hear the referee and his explanations of ‘why I refuse’, ‘why I accept’, the spectators would understand and hear the decisions better. I think it’s a drag not to have it. ”
If rugby is now seen as a model in the use of video refereeing, it was not all so easy at the start. “Rugby has over ten years of experience in video refereeing, recalls Laurent Cardona, in Top 14 for twelve years and who knew the beginnings of the tool. At the beginning of the video, it was a hassle. We had a lot of trouble gauging our video calls. We also had many protocols that were published one after the other, almost one every six months, to try to regulate its use. ”
# TOP14 – D5
When the best referee of last season, Romain Poite, and the “little rascal” Arthur Joly discuss, it’s worth its weight in gold #nugget @usap_officiel pic.twitter.com/6xzGGoZA1k– TOP 14 Rugby (@ top14rugby) October 5, 2021
Before mastering video refereeing, the oval world suffered failures and learned from its mistakes. “When we started the video, we cut the images in the stadiums. The spectators therefore did not have access to the elements of the video refereeing. This created enormous frustration ”, remembers Laurent Cardona. Faced with this non-membership, the leaders then backpedaled.
And today, transparency and pedagogy are fully part of the Top 14 arbitration. “Sometimes we broadcast video arbitration to have our decisions validated by the public. We know that we are right but in two clips, the decision goes to video, and this allows everyone to validate it, without ambiguity”, smiles the referee, who welcomes the real contribution of the video.
“We struggled for five or six years, but after ten years, we have the right balance.”
Laurent Cardena, Top 14 refereeto franceinfo: sport
For Laurent Cardona, football is still in the adaptation phase: “VAR will become almost perfect, because a perfect system does not exist, within two or three years, he believes. Unfortunately not before, because they need this experience, need to make mistakes, and to correct themselves, as was the case in rugby. Right now they are skimming through all the little mistakes they can make with VAR and they are going to correct them ”.