BAR debates over VAR: video refereeing in Spain under fire

Video Assistant Referee, VAR, is the system implemented to provide technical assistance to referees on the football pitch using images from television cameras.

FIFA sets out the four scenarios in which VAR should be used:

• Determining when a goal has been scored
• To determine whether there has been a penalty kick
• Determining whether an action warrants a red card

Correct identification of a player when imposing a sanction.

The "famous VAR room". This is a room where a team of three referees have television images of the match taken from different angles and camera shots to analyse them.

These referees are in direct connection via an intercom with the referee of the match to receive questions and warnings.

Initially, the "VAR room" in Spain and most other countries was located in the stadium where the match is being held. In Germany it is centralised in Cologne in the same facilities as always. In Spain it is located in the Ciudad del Fútbol de Las Rozas, where all the VAR rooms currently available in Spanish football are located.

Who will provide the necessary technology for the VAR room? In Spain, the company Mediapro was initially commissioned. In each country, the Federation or the corresponding League contracts it. It is usually the company in charge of broadcasting the matches. It is currently a Sony company.

The final decision on a match action always rests with the main referee. He can be called upon to review on the monitor any play in which the "VAR room" believes that one of the four cases established by FIFA has been violated.

At the beginning of its use, this system was criticised because it was thought that the interruptions would cause the rhythm of the match to be lost and that the passion in some celebrations or decisions would diminish. There is always the question of whether the goal will be legal. This is happening, albeit to a minimal extent, and is taken for granted in the pursuit of sporting justice.

Most team sports such as basketball, American football, rugby and even tennis use it.

Nowadays, there are few who believe that it brings more harm than good to football. It has its advantages and disadvantages.

Harm can be: breaking the rhythm of the match, reducing the passion on the field of play, ending Bar debates, etc.

The benefits: sporting justice and ending unsporting behaviour.

The reality is that VAR is not without controversy. 

In its first steps, it was criticised for poor use by the company that provided the images, Mediapro.

The producer did not make a correct selection of the images sent to the VAR room. It came to light that the owner of Mediapro was a radical culé and it was shown that images were omitted that were later sent to us from other countries. This added to the fact that the company is owned by a self-styled Catalan pro-independence man. One of the most influential men in Spain is the Catalan Jaume Roures, who controls a large part of the television channels. Bein, GolTV and the channels that broadcast La Liga and Champions League. The businessman is a close friend of Joan Laporta and Pep Guardiola. He also has a football player representation company together with Pere Guardiola. A partner of Barcelona, he was also Johan Cruyff's agent when he was coach.

Reports appeared, such as the one from Europa Press which said that the "RFEF accuses Mediapro of manipulating an image of the VAR in the Athletic-Valencia match". The media made parallel rankings without VAR and with VAR: "This is how the Primera Division standings are and how they would be without VAR".

The new company supplying the images also works with FIFA, UEFA, Serie A, Bundesliga, MLS, EPL, Ligue 1, Turkish Superleague, CAF, J League... and now the Royal Spanish Football Federation (RFEF), a British company belonging to Sony that has established itself as a world reference in this field.

Cádiz coach Álvaro Cervera, after the Osasuna-Cádiz match, said: "I can't say what I think because, in this country in football, if you say what you think you can be punished. Nobody has told us what hands are and what hands are not. They should save themselves from going to the VAR to see the play because the referee always says what the VAR has said beforehand. I have yet to see a play where the VAR has been overruled. That's the way it is, they don't want to change it, they don't do anything to change it, they don't want to explain it, they don't do anything to explain it. We have to take it for granted and that's it".

We see absurdities such as the fact that in the same VAR play the image server tells us that it is offside and another that it is not. In many cases because the line is wrongly drawn. Or because the image is captured at the wrong time. There is a lack of professionals.

A tool that was meant to bring justice. For many journalists, fans or footballers it has become useless junk.

In the last Real Madrid game there were three clear red card assaults and the VAR did not act. For more minor situations, players such as Trigueros of Villarreal, Modric of Real Madrid and many others were sent off.

The issue of hands was discussed last week and the criteria are not understood by players, coaches or Iker Jimenez.

Another issue is what some call picaresque and what others call cheats. Players who fake aggressions.

For example, in the Alavés match against Elche, En Nesyri, at the end of the match, faked an aggression and it was his own teammate Manu who picked him up and told him "don't be a dick...". Elche, who are in danger of relegation, are helpless because of judges who have forty televisions and only see what they are interested in.
These behaviours should be sanctioned.

In short: the VAR neither applies sporting justice nor puts an end to unsporting behaviour. Sola is enough for BAR talk shows.

The Hernández Hernández and González González are still being talked about in bars and football chat shows and not about the spectacle.

An urgent and radical change is needed in the Spanish refereeing establishment.

Week after week the refereeing scandals cause embarrassment.

The curious thing is that the final of the Champions League is being refereed by a Spanish referee. We shall see!