Oh VAR! Please don't ruin the beautiful game
On the back of the success of the implementation of the goal-line technology, football is on the verge of introducing a new one- Video Assistant Referee (VAR). The VAR is an addition that gives the first referee of a match the opportunity to review his/her own decisions with the help of video footages.
The intention of implementing this system is to avoid human errors from affecting the outcomes of football matches. Goals, red cards, offsides and mistaken identity, which are the main result-affecting factors, can be reviewed using VAR.
While it has not been implemented in all of the major football leagues around the world, VAR has already made its debut in the Serie A, German Bundesliga, Portuguese Primeira Liga, Australian A-League and the Major League Soccer this season.
The technology has also been used in the 2017 FIFA U-20 World Cup, 2017 FIFA Confederations Cup, 2016 FIFA Club World Cup and 2017 FIFA Club World Cup. Recently the VAR was tested in an international friendly match between England and Germany.
While the technology is set to be trialled in the FA Cup next month, Spanish La Liga and French Ligue 1 have confirmed that VAR will be implemented in the leagues next season.
With the FIFA World Cup fast approaching in 2018, we could even see the system being used in football's most popular tournament with FIFA thinking about the usage of it.
The fans, players, managers and others have received the VAR with a mixed reaction. One set of people speaking for the technology, while the other set speaks against with Real Madrid manager and French legend Zinedine Zidane being one of them.
Those who support the implementation of the system that is 'a source of confusion', according to Zidane, want football matches to be fair and square. While others think it squanders the time, causes dubiety and kills the flow like turbulence does to an aeroplane.
The arguments from both sides are valid and understandable, but what concerns me as a football fan is none of that.
Let me quote the words of one of football's greats - Ronaldo de Assis Moreira or Ronaldinho as we all call him. The man with magic in his feet said, "I learned all about life with a ball at my feet".
While I may not have 'learned all about life with a football at my feet' like Dinho said, the beautiful game has played a major role in teaching me a lot about life. I am just 19 and started watching football just five years ago, but the game in which 22 sweaty men run behind a ball as some like to call it has taught me more than what 15 years of academic studies have taught and I believe many other football fans will have the same story to tell.
Well, this might sound completely unrelated to the core topic of the article, but I beg you to bear with me till I finish.
Like I mentioned before, the advocates of VAR want it to be implemented so as to make to the game fair.
This quote that I found on Google, I believe, is the reply to them - "Life is unfair but it doesn't matter. What matters is how you play the game in life"
Unfairness has always been a part of football like goals and fouls. If you don't think so, may I take you back to 1986? 22nd June 1986 to be precise. The day when Argentina took on England in the Quarter Finals of the FIFA World Cup.
In the 51st minute of the game, a 25-year-old Diego Maradona scored arguably the most infamous goal of all time, known as the Hand of the God goal. This goal even overshadowed the 'Goal of the Century' scored by the same man in the same match just four minutes later.
Unfairness has played a major role in the history of football. If not for that, Argentina would have had one less World Cup in their trophy cabinet.
I am a Liverpool fan and in the five years as a Red, I have had moments when I wished VAR existed. Like the UEFA Europa League finals in 2016, when three penalty calls could have gone our way but didn't. Liverpool ended up losing 3-1 to Sevilla that night.
Oh! And there is one more. The Manchester City versus Liverpool match that took place at the Etihad in the 2013/14 season. Yes, the same season in which we came to so close to the title but a Steven Gerrard slip gave it away according to many.
In the match that ultimately ended in a 2-1 win for the Citizens, then Liverpool player Raheem Sterling was called offside in the 19th minute but he clearly wasn't. The youngster took on Joe Hart and scored but was disappointed when he came to know that the goal would not count.
No one can be sure of what would have happened if that goal stood, but I tend to believe that decision played a major role in my team missing out the Premier League title as a draw in the tie would have given us one extra point and taken two out of City's resulting in the Kopites watching Gerrard lifting the league trophy for the first time.
When I look back to those incidents now, I realize that those imperfections are what makes football beautiful. In football, there might be mistakes from your own players, your opponents or even the officials, as there are in life.
I don't know about you but, I would rather tell my children about how a 'Hand of God' cost my team a trophy than tell them about how an 'Eye of a Machine' made my team the champions. Because the former teaches you a lot about life than the latter.
'Football is life, not a TV show.'