Every sports fan has been there. It’s the last minute of a game. The intensity is high. You long ago left the edge of your seat to franticly pace. Then the ball gets tipped out of bounds, it moves a fraction of an inch in the receiver’s hands, or hands got mixed in with the headers. Just like that, the momentum has stopped and the referees are huddled around a video monitor watching the play from every angle.
Video review has taken on a larger role in sporting events in the past few years. On one hand, getting the call right is imperative. On the other, it is impossible to recapture the momentum and atmosphere of the game prior to the break. The most recent issue occurred in European soccer and involved the video assisted referee (VAR) system which is set to be used on the world’s stage at this summer’s World Cup.
“I’m sure that is historic. I’ve never seen anything like it!”
Unprecedented scenes in Germany as VAR awarded a penalty after the half-time whistle had been blown
pic.twitter.com/WxtEMhaXMJ
— Football on BT Sport (@btsportfootball) April 16, 2018
Let’s examine what happened in Germany.
Mainz was playing Freiburg and the game was scoreless as the referee blew the whistle for halftime. But right before the whistle was blown, a dangerous cross had come in to the box and Freiburg defender Marc-Oliver Kempf knocked it away. The call on the field was clean but the video came back with a clear hand ball.
So with both teams already in the locker room, referee Guido Winkmann had to bring the teams on the field for a penalty shot. It was reminiscent of American football teams having to come back on the field for extra points – something the NFL is considering getting rid of – except this penalty kick actually affected the outcome of the game, not just sports books. Striker Pablo de Blasis knocked the kick home and both teams went back to their locker rooms with the score 1-0 in Mainz’s favor.
The argument against VAR is this: soccer is a game of pace and momentum is crucial. So crucial that time is added at the end of games to prevent clock stoppages. The long delays brought on by VAR seem to go against that tenant.
The argument for: soccer is a game where the smallest moments matter. The final score of that game was 2-0 and only in the final 10 minutes did de Blasis add another goal. The correct call on the field was a handball. He should have shot originally and now he has – so all is right.
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It’s a tricky subject.
How do sports fans balance the desire for fairness and correct calls with the momentum and energy that make sports so fun to watch?
In the NBA, reviews only take place in the last two minutes of either half. It works alright, but those are the most emotionally charged minutes in any game.
The NFL has been doing replay reviews since 1999 and has worked out a relatively solid system – minus the catch rule, which the league recently agreed to change, and Major League Baseball has been using replay in some form since 2008. It’s worth noting that baseball and American football have the benefit of having more structured breaks for reviews than basketball or soccer, although MLB has had to address the constant pace-of-play concerns, which are exacerbated by replay.
Football leagues around the world have had to make a decision on VAR. The Premiere League voted against it. MLS has been very receptive to it. Soon enough, VAR will be thrust into the global spotlight as the World Cup gets underway. There will be more reviews and more stoppages in play, but ultimately the call will be correct a higher percentage of the time. The question is – is it worth it?