VAR can't review everything

The argument

The argument is that VAR fails on its own terms, because the problem it was introduced to solve is not the kind of problem that a review process can solve. Fans, players and managers do not agree on how VAR should be used, and the disagreement is not a transitional difficulty: the system has been criticised both for not intervening enough and for intervening when it was not needed, which are complaints that cannot be satisfied simultaneously. A threshold set to catch more errors produces more of the second complaint, and one set to interfere less produces more of the first. The reason no threshold settles the matter lies in what is being reviewed. Many of the decisions at issue are judgements rather than observations: whether contact amounted to a foul, whether an offence was serious, whether an outcome followed from it. Reviewing such a decision does not replace a fallible judgement with a measurement, because a human being is still behind the decision, and the subjectivity surrounding a referee's call therefore survives the review rather than being removed by it. Proponents note that VAR officials often overturn on-field penalty decisions that had actually been correct, which is what one would expect if the second judgement is no more authoritative than the first. The consequence is that VAR redistributes controversy rather than reducing it. Fans and players argue about the outcomes of decisions for weeks after a match, and the argument now has an additional target, since a decision confirmed or reversed after review invites a dispute about the review as well as about the original call. A technology introduced to add objectivity to the game that leaves the subjectivity intact is, on this account, insufficient and unnecessary. It creates more problems than it solves for a sport that remains subjective and risky whether or not the replays are consulted, and football is worse for it.

Premises

Counter-arguments

Even if VAR cannot review everything, VAR allows the referee to review a play and make more informed decisions. Just because VAR cannot review everything does not mean it should be abandoned. A referee can still receive help from VAR, in the form of an objective video recording. VAR makes the game fairer by giving referees more information to help make their decision. A video recording reduces the chances of referees making biased decisions or of players cheating. Just because VAR cannot review everything does not mean it can still review something and help make the game fairer.

Rejecting the premises

[Rejecting P2 and P3] A camera captures events without bias, helping referees make more objective decisions.