
The Video Assistant Referee (VAR) is being used more and more in soccer, and it seems like it will be sticking around for a while. CONCACAF has revealed that they will be using the technology in many of their 2022 competitions, including all of the remaining qualifiers for the FIFA World Cup, the men's and women's U20 Championships, and the W Championship.
The organization's decision to expand the use of VAR was prompted in part by success with the technology in 2021 competitions like the CONCACAF Champions League, Gold Cup and Nations League Finals. The Confederation said progress on VAR had been "considerably" delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic, but now has enough VAR-qualified referees and venues to expand the technology's use.
Despite receiving FIFA's approval for World Cup use in 2018, VAR still has its critics. Enthusiasts are concerned that the requests for video reviews can slow down matches, and that the use of centralized review hubs could be used to skew decisions. Soccer already has plenty of drama over tackles and handballs, they argue — VAR just draws out those disputes and takes away from the thrill of the game.
However, the arguments against the system do not appear to have lost any momentum. VAR helped reverse 17 out of 20 bad calls during the 2018 World Cup, and some backers have contended that video reviews would have overturned other mistakes if they had been used more consistently. Like it or not, tech is more likely to loom in the background of soccer matches than it has before.
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