Has Video Refereeing Ruined The World Cup? (npr.org)

An anonymous reader shares a report: This is the first time FIFA, soccer's governing body, has allowed video replay to be used to make penalty calls in a World Cup. And while fans of basketball and American football are used to the referees stopping the game to consult video footage, soccer purists say it's ruining everything. The major complaint is that it's making the matches much longer than the typical 90-minute games. Martin Rogers, a sports columnist for USA Today, says Video Assistant Referee (or VAR) is "slow, clunky and unpredictable." Over the phone from Russia, where he's reporting on the World Cup, he jokes, "I remember back in the day, when if a game kicked off at 3 o'clock in the afternoon, you'd be all wrapped up by 4:45."

Rogers says this type of technology works well for American football and basketball. "When you look at the calls that are used for replay, in basketball for example, it's normally factual. It's based on, 'Did a player get a shot off before the clock expired?' It's easy. You know. It's black and white." But soccer, Rogers says, is different. He's referring to one of the most hated and beloved qualities of the game: the endless drama. It's a thespian sport.

Comments

Nah, 'diving' did that a long time ago.

[RyanFenton]

If a player is writing on the ground in pain, then for their own safety, they should not be allowed to return to the game at all.

Whether they can get up afterwards and say they can play immediately afterwards is not an issue - no players should be allowed to play with the possibility of an injury, imagined or otherwise.

Ryan Fenton

Re:Nah, 'diving' did that a long time ago.

[Obfuscant]

I've also not figured out YET...how they time the damned things.

The referee times the match. The displayed clock is not the official timing.

The referee has the ability, and the responsibility, to add time when players are using up time just to use up time, or when there is a significant stoppage of play. E.g., during a substitution the departing player dawdles getting off the field. If the goalie dawdles in executing a goal kick. If a fight breaks out that stops play. If a player has an injury that requires transport off the pitch. One instance during a recent cup match was when one team was awarded a free kick and a member of the opposing team carried the ball away from the free kick location. (Many of these time-wasting tactics merit and get yellow cards.)

It's called "stoppage time" because it is intended to make up for deliberate stoppage of play.

Those delays can, and often do, occur during the stoppage time already added. If a team is ahead by a goal, they are going to try slowing things down as much as they can.

It just seemed arbitrary.

Many calls by a referee can seem arbitrary. What exactly merits an red card? How about a yellow? Penalty kick? It's all judgement calls, unless it is a truly egregious violation. Even "hand ball" is sometimes arbitrary. Referee judgement, was the arm or hand in a normal position and not a deliberate action?

Shouldn't time mean TIME..and when it runs out, it is over?

It does. It's just that you're looking at an unofficial clock, which means unofficial. The official clock is on the wrist of the on-field official.

IN case of ties....why not a sudden death thing in soccer like with US Football?

Because it's a different game. It doesn't operate under the same assumption that there must always be a winner of every match. In fact, the overall "winners" are determined by the overall performance during the season. The exception is the last rounds of the world cup where it is a head-to-head competition and the winner is based on the result of one match.

Note that even US football has issues with time, but they are hidden because there is an official clock displayed on the scoreboard. The refs can and do add time to the clock, and the clock STOPS. What really really annoys me about US football is that the last "two minutes" of a game can run for 45 minutes. If that's not an issue with "time means TIME", then I don't know what is.

And the guy in the summary who is unhappy that a match that starts at 3PM doesn't end at 4:45PM on the dot -- he's just an idiot. Stoppage time has been a thing for a very long time.