I mean yes it’s a tool, but it does come down to how the tool is used and in this cup, it’s been abused.
Egypt and Norway lost due to controversial VAR calls annulling goals.
It’s been used to push favorites.
And despite microchips in balls, and VAR, they still have shit calls like ignoring that the ball hit a camera wire in the Norway vs England match which should have been a dead ball.
Tar_alcaran@sh.itjust.works 1 week ago
Back during the Cold War, the Stasi and KGB had a strategy. You observe everything and log everything.
When someone you like breaks the rules, you see it, and you ignore it. When someone you don’t like breaks the rules, you see it and you bring the hammer down.
There is no person and no sporting event that doesn’t ever break a rule. But if you start selectively using those rules to punish one side and ignore the other, then you’re just discriminating with cameras. You’re not judging fairly anymore.
TargaryenTKE@lemmy.world 1 week ago
Like I said, I don’t think they’re being used perfectly, no. And I think you’re right that they can indeed be used in a negative/unfair way. But I do still believe that having the multi-cam option is a good thing for a professional sporting event. I don’t know the exact rules on how they’re used in FIFA (so feel free to call me out here), but if I had to guess, I think it’s similar to the use of the review box in American Football: the refs on the field make a call, if it’s disputed or if they need more info then they go to the cameras, but ultimately the human beings on the field have the final say. Obviously I didn’t watch every World Cup match, but I don’t recall ever seeing a moment where the VAR stopped play and made a call on its own that every ref on the field had missed. Sports commentators might have seen/talked about something like that, saying that the refs SHOULD have picked up on something, but at the end of the day it’s still humans making the initial calls and the cameras are just there to provide evidence.