Irish Examiner view: Time to blow the final whistle on Var

Soccer authorities should show the red card to video-assisted refereeing, an intrusion that stops the flow of games 

Japan's players were happy to celebrate Ao Tanaka's second goal against Spain in their World Cup game on Thursday but the Var process is turning football into a video game. Picture: Nick Potts/PA

A famous archbishop once shared the view that “all technology is the Devil’s work”. True, it was the bishop of Durham, the prelate who described the resurrection as a “conjuring trick with bones” bringing down, some say, God’s wrath three days later in the form of the lightning bolt which devastated York Minster. 

But he could have been prophesying the arrival of Var when he made his comment.

It’s five years since video-assisted refereeing was brought in to remove “clear and obvious errors” from soccer. This is the second World Cup in which it has featured. Its impact is worse, not better, as we saw in the did-the-ball-cross-the-line controversy that dominated the Spain versus Japan match debate.

Ironically, it was the TV broadcasters who clamoured most for its implementation. And they are still moaning.

In its early years, banners would appear at matches proclaiming: “Killing the passion; killing the atmosphere; killing the game. End Var now.” 

Spontaneous celebrations have been replaced by officials with slide rules, digital markers and expertise in trigonometry. Opaque decisions take many minutes in a sport which does not have inbuilt pauses such as rugby, cricket, and tennis.

Any worldclass tournament should be dominated by the skills of the globe’s leading players. This one has become obsessed with debates about camera angles and is thereby reduced to a video game. It is time the plug was pulled on Var.