Name : Hanan Shadily Al Dikstaal

NIM : 16020084020

ARGUMENTATIVE ESSAY

SHOULD THE VIDEO ASSISTANT REFEREE (VAR)

BE USED IN A FOOTBALL MATCH?

Nowadays, football is undoubtedly the most popular sport in the world. According to

the totalSPORTEK, a site that covers all major sports events plus the business side of sport

industry, football has over than four billion fans around the world (25 World’s Most Popular

Sports (Ranked by 13 factors), 2018)1. As the most popular sport in the world, there have been

various technologies made to make football better since a long time ago. The newest one is the

Video Assistant Referee (VAR) technology. VAR is a team of three people who work together

to help the main referee in making decisions by watching the video replays of the relevant

incidents (Platt, 2018)2. This technology has been a huge talking in football recently. The

Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) and some football fans believe that

this technology will surely make the football better because it may reduce the injustices that

usually occur in a football match. However, the VAR technology may give some bad impacts

too in the football.

What football fans always demand to make football better is the better referees.

However, the fact is that VAR does not always make a referee have the fair decisions for both

teams in a match when the VAR is trialed. The injustices still happen in the football matches

because even though the VAR is used in a match, the one who has to make the decisions is still

1
25 World’s Most Popular Sports (Ranked by 13 factors). (2018). https://www.totalsportek.com/most-popular-
sports/ [Retrieved at 2nd May 2018]
2
Platt, O. (2018). What Is VAR? The Video Assistant Referee System's World Cup & Premier League Future.
http://www.goal.com/en/news/what-is-var-the-video-assistant-referee-systems-world-
cup/19m696jq7onm618n3v9oqs02ab [Retrieved at 2nd May 2018]
the referee and the referee’s decisions with the help of VAR are not always fair. One of the

unfair decisions occurs in the FA Cup third-round replay match between Chelsea FC and

Norwich City on January 2018 when Willian was shown a yellow card because he was

considered diving after being tackled by Timm Klose, whereas it was clear that Timm Klose’s

tackle hit Willian and it should be a penalty (Chelsea VAR Controversy, 2018)3. The VAR had

been used in this match, but the referee’s decision was still controversial. Therefore, it is better

for FIFA to improve the referee’s quality than release any technology that does not significantly

make the football better.

Anyone who loves football must agree that football is more than just a game. Football

is like an art which has soul and emotion that can always be felt by the fans, footballers, or

official teams in every football matches. A technology like the VAR may kill this sense. It is

common and beautiful to see the fans and the players cry over a defeat or a win, or celebrate a

goal together in the football. Yet, these beautiful things and natural flow of a football match

may be disturbed by the VAR as a referee has to stop a match for a while just to review any

incidents or goals that occur. The VAR may cause the fans and the players have to wait a

moment before celebrating a goal. This is not football. “I am not sure that the system (VAR) is

going to help. We love the game that we know. Football is about emotion, we want to keep the

emotion.” Tottenham Hotspurs Manager Mauricio Pochettino’s statement after his team 6-1

win over Rochdale in the FA Cup fifth-round replay match as the match was annoyed by some

controversial decision made by the VAR (Kilpatrick, 2018)4. Mauricio Pochettino’s statement

clearly shows that although your team will eventually win, the use of VAR still may be bad for

the football because we will lose the emotion and the excitement of this beautiful game.

3
Chelsea VAR Controversy: Referee Should Have Been Told to Watch Video – Antonio Conte. (2018).
https://www.bbc.com/sport/football/42727541/ [Retrieved at 17th May 2018]
4
Kilpatrick, D. (2018). VAR System Is ‘Killing the Emotion’ of Football – Mauricchio Pocchettino.
http://www.espn.com/soccer/tottenham-hotspur/story/3401537/var-system-is-killing-the-emotion-of-football-
mauricio-pochettino/ [Retrieved at 17th May 2018]
 Those who support the VAR believe that the VAR will make football better by reducing

the controversy that sometimes happen in the football matches, but the fact is that there are still

some controversies occur even when the VAR is used. However, do not the controversies that

occur when the VAR is not used make football more interesting?. We will not be able to see

the goals like Maradona and Messi’s “God Hand” goals anymore, Lampard’s dissallowed goal

versus Germany in the World Cup 2010, or Arjen Robben’s dive versus Mexico in the World

Cup 2014 if the VAR will officially be used in every professional football matches. It is true

that those controversies are not fair for one side, but it also should be admitted that those

controversies make football more exciting to watch especially for the neutral football fans.

Those controversies are something that is very interesting to talk about outside the pitch by the

football fans. In addition, those controversies are also something that make the journalists have

something to write about in their newspaper. So, football actually does not need VAR because

the controversy is the part of the football too.