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The real reason VAR infuriates football fans and how to fix it

The controversies surrounding football鈥檚 video assistant referee (VAR) system highlight our troubled relationship with uncertainty 鈥 and point to potential solutions

By Daisy Christodoulou

7 November 2024

Liverpool fans jostle for a look at the on-field VAR screen at Anfield stadium

Liverpool fans jostle for a look at the on-field VAR screen at Anfield stadium

Alex Dodd – CameraSport via Getty Images

If you have watched any football 鈥 or soccer 鈥 over the past few years, you will know that the game has been consumed by controversies over its new refereeing technology. The video assistant referee (VAR) system was introduced to the English Premier League in 2019 to reduce refereeing errors and get more decisions right. Instead, it has created new kinds of uncertainty and undermined our understanding of fundamental rules like offside and handball. It has also infuriated fans, who can often be heard chanting 鈥渋t鈥檚 not football any more鈥 after a long-winded VAR check.

It is fair to say that football fans like to get irate, especially when refereeing decisions go against their team. But as I argue in my new book, I Can鈥檛 Stop Thinking About VAR, there鈥檚 more to this than meets the eye. As someone whose job involves developing new methods of measuring educational attainment, I have thought long and hard about the reasons why VAR has been so frustrating. I believe its problems relate to the challenge of pinning down objective reality, the difficulty of precise measurement and the human dislike of uncertainty.

What I have also come to realise, however, is that VAR exemplifies the limits of rationality in many walks of life far beyond the football field. As such, a brief exploration of the history of measurement more broadly聽鈥 from attempts to pin down the boiling point of water in the 18th century to the struggle to accurately assess the…

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