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The problem with VAR - YouTube
Channel: Tifo Football
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up today do you remember before var
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when every refereeing decision was a
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major talking point
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when i guess we'll never really know was
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a reasonable refrain
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well of course you do because while var
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promised an end to the unknown
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in reality it magnified it now to give
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var its credit
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we may never have another mistake as
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egregious as thierry henry's handball
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or alex oxlade-chamberlain being
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mistaken for kieran gibbs
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but the truth is that for all its
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successes var illuminates complex
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problems
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without providing proper answers it
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highlights a terminal conflict between
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two now-diverging concepts
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observation and application and this
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conflict
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now at the heart of the sport threatens
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to change the way the game is played
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forever
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[Laughter]
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the ar's introduction to the premier
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league was unavoidable the history of
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the sport
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is littered with refereeing errors and
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by 2019
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supporters were clamoring for a solution
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but why
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well because most football leagues
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operate in pyramid structures
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they use promotion and relegation as
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tools of social mobility
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the idea being that a team at the bottom
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of the pyramid could theoretically reach
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the top
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now for human beings that's a very
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engaging narrative but it's based on the
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fundamentals of fair play and even
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playing fields
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and unfortunately refereeing errors can
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challenge those tenants
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now the driving factor of course is that
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the technology to monitor some of these
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errors is readily available
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but as dr ian malcolm once presciently
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said
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they were so preoccupied with whether or
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not they could they didn't stop to think
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if they should of course technology
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isn't all bad but there are important
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distinctions to make
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because prior to the introduction of var
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the premier league already utilized goal
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line technology
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on the 18th of january 2014 manchester
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city's edin jeko became its first
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beneficiary
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his goal that day against cardiff city
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was the league's first awarded by the
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use of technology
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in 2020 sheffield united were denied a
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goal against aston villa due to a glitch
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in the hawkeye system
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but this remains the only black mark on
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an otherwise impeccable record
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goalline technology is clearly a success
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but its success is not the technology
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it's the application it's a goal or it
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isn't there's no margin for error no
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middle ground no uncertainty whether or
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not a ball has crossed a line is the
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perfect use case
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for technological assistance because
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there is no gap between the observation
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of that event
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and the ability to apply the correct
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outcome
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var however is utilized to observe a
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broader range of events
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these incidences are categorized as
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goals penalty decisions
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direct red card incidents or mistaken
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identity
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and it's only to be used for clear and
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obvious errors or
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serious missed incidents so you're
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either kieran gibbs or you're not and
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that's fine
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but in the other three categories things
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are not quite as simple
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take for example an incident in a game
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between chelsea and manchester united
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in february 2021. callum hudson adoye
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and mason greenwood collide in chelsea's
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penalty area
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and the event is reviewed to check for a
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possible handball
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now at first it appeared as if it was
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greenwood who had handled the ball
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so much so that surrounding chelsea
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players loudly appealed
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for a free kick yet upon review it was
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shown that it was actually hudson a
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doy's hand
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that made contact and yet no penalty was
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awarded
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so let's go through this process now
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this can fairly be described as a
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serious missed incident
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a trigger for the video assistant
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referee to complete a check
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however unlike our goal or no goal or
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gibbs or not gibbs incidents
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this isn't clear-cut thereby creating a
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gap between observation
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and application and to bridge this gap
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we need to
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interpret and this is where the messy
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human errors
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find their way back into the system you
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see var
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isn't a problem it simply illuminates
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the problem of applying
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the rules and here are the rules
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relating to handball offenses
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the truth is that there simply cannot be
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a conclusive answer because the rule
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requires a degree of interpretation what
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is deliberate
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to what degree of accuracy can you
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determine the boundary of the arm
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to what extent does an arm make the body
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unnaturally bigger
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the answer is individual to the
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individual providing the answer
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because it cannot not be so we were
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interpreting before var
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and we are interpreting now and it's
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inarguable that the technology allows us
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a greater chance of applying the correct
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outcome
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in scenarios where there is such a thing
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as a correct outcome
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but that's not really the problem the
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problem is that the rules of the game
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are being changed to accommodate this
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greater observational access
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at the beginning of the 2019-20 season
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ifab
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amended the handball rule the aim was to
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make handball incidents easier to
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interpret or in our language to shorten
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the gap
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between observation and application
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across
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europe these adjustments led to a
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significant rise in the number of
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penalties
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awarded for handball fouls and at the
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beginning of the 2020-21 season
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fifa in charge of the implementation of
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the ar insisted that the premier league
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follow suit
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and apply the stricter interpretation
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this consequently led to a similar rise
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in handball penalties awarded and has
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been a source of
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much consternation with supporters
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players and managers
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the reaction to which has been the
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apparent easing of that strict
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interpretation
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leading us full circle back to hudson
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odoi whose handling of the ball very
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likely would have resulted in a penalty
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had it happened just a few months
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earlier and herein
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lies the danger the rules are being
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changed in order to improve the
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efficiency
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of var if interpretation plays too much
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of a role
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in a way that now millions of people see
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on televisions every weekend
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then the instinct is to amend the rules
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to be increasingly black and white
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and to apply a definitive lens to areas
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of the game
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which were always intended to be
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subjective
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