Soccer officials support VAR

Video review causing commotion during Women’s World Cup

Associated Press

PARIS

Video review has created confusion and brought questions at the Women’s World Cup.

The Video Assistant Referee, or VAR, was integrated into the men’s World Cup in Russia last year, leading to calls for it to also be used for the women’s tournament in France. But it certainly hasn’t gone as smoothly as it did for the men.

Some have suggested there has been an overreliance on the technology, and complained that it causes delays and interrupts the flow of the game.

FIFA officials insisted Wednesday that the system is working as intended.

“The VAR cannot be blind, cannot ignore. If you have a tool that offers you the possibility to check, you have to check,” said Pierluigi Collina, chairman of FIFA’s refereeing committee.

Through 44 matches at the Women’s World Cup, there were 441 incidents checked through the course of play and 29 VAR reviews, FIFA said. Of those reviews, 25 resulted in changed calls with four confirmed.

There have been a record 23 penalty kicks heading into the quarterfinals, surpassing the 22 taken across the entire 2011 World Cup in Canada. Eleven were awarded with VAR assistance. Three were cancelled after VAR review.

Kari Seitz, FIFA’s senior manager of refereeing, insisted VAR is not changing the way games are being officiated.

“We instruct the referees to referee as they would referee (without VAR), and that is really a critical point. They are out there officiating like they would officiate with or without VAR. That hasn’t changed. Refereeing remains the same, but with the parachute, with the opportunity to correct those big mistakes, or those things the video evidence shows us,” Seitz said.

Last week, the use of VAR prompted a rules change going into the round of 16.

The rule was meant to give goalkeepers more flexibility, making them keep just one foot, not two, on the goal-line during penalty kicks. But the use of VAR strictly enforced the rule, with goalkeepers given little time to adjust. FIFA feared more goalkeepers could be penalized and sent off, a concern because no substitutes are allowed during shootouts.

So FIFA suspended the requirement that goalkeepers be shown yellow cards for stepping off the goal-line during penalty shootouts, which means goalkeepers can only be booked at the tournament for stepping off the line during a penalty kick in normal time. The kick will still be retaken, however.

The rule became an issue in the group stage when Scotland goalkeeper Lee Alexander saved a penalty kick by Argentina’s Florencia Bonsegundo in stoppage time. A VAR review showed Alexander had moved just inches off her line and Bonsegundo scored on the retake, tying the game at 3-3 and ending Scotland’s hopes of advancing.

“I think most of the problems came after Argentina versus Scotland because of how the match went — 3-0 to 3-3. A few days before the same penalty kick was retaken in Jamaica versus Italy and nobody complained,” Collina said. “We have to enforce the rules.”