VAR is stealing the passion associated with football

Two great football competitions have just ended – Euro 2024 and Copa America – with the best team in each competition emerging victorious but the game seemed to be on a stutter, with VAR being the focal point instead of free flow of play on the field.

VAR - Video Assistant Referee - are match officials, who use technology-aided system to asses "clear and obvious errors" or serious missed incidents.  

Football is magical because it is unpredictable. The game takes the fans through highs and lows, as shown now and then by TV, but at Euro 2024 the highs and lows seemed controlled by VAR.

As the Euro matches progressed, it became clear that football was turning into a physical game with referees calling out fouls mostly when the foot was stamped on – a foul with a yellow card is the new routine.

VAR was used when most goals were scored or at times when they were not and a few decisions, especially the penalty England won when captain Kane was supposedly fouled, made many wonder how VAR is expected to take football forward.

In the VAR clip related to awarding the penalty in favour of England it was clear that Kane was not touched before he took the shot and the ball did not deflect from the opposing team player for it to fly over. It was a bad try at goal by Kane and his team was gifted with a penalty.

The referee is the boss and he did get to see the replay, and if he still saw a penalty in that, it means the rules of the game are robbing passion from football. There were occasions when what looked like a goal was disallowed and an instance where the ball grazed a hand ended with a goal being disallowed.

Technology often ends up destroying the passion for a sport and hopefully this will not happen to football, which is the opium for many, especially in South America. It will take years where we reach anywhere close to the feverish passion the people in South America have for the game.

A third division match in Brazil attracts around 20,000 to 30,000 spectators. It is like attending a football carnival where emotions run high at which each spectator drools in the belief that he or she knew it all.

There has been a lot of debate about the inclusion of VAR and once decided it now appears that the system has made the officials wary of the way they allow the game to flow.

A player errs and so could a referee. It is not the end of the world. If a team loses on a day it should have won, it is part of history and heartburns are part of it. Maradona did it and it is a nice nugget of football history.

Football is a game that has 22 men with a ball that churns the emotions of all those watching them. This is the height of football and winning or losing are part of the score sheet.

VAR appeared to be used on routine during Euro 2024 as compared to the World Cup in Qatar. It seemed acceptable in Qatar but seemed to be determining the game at the recently-concluded Euro 2024 and as a consequence the game seemed to be losing some of its glint because technology has no space or time for emotions.

Football is a game that does not understand boundaries. It was reported that a majority of Goans wanted Spain to win the finals against England even though the latter country hosts them. It is the style of play that matters and it is style that keeps the ball on a healthy bounce lest technology  plays spoilsport.