Watching oVAR
What if video review had been available for soccer’s most notorious moments?
Diego Maradona labeled his iconic opener against England in a 1986 World Cup quarterfinal as the ‘Hand of God,’ but English fans know it as “the hand of a cheat.”
Three decades later, former World Cup ref Howard Webb looks back on that infamous moment through the lens of a video assistant referee (VAR).
Video review will be used at this summer’s FIFA World Cup for the first time, ensuring “clear and obvious” errors won’t stand — regardless of whether or not, as Maradona once facetiously claimed, a deity is involved in the proceedings.
“The outcomes now are less down to chance,” Howard told Postmedia before the tourney kicks off in Moscow this week. “They will be much more in line with what the outcome should be. We can rectify mistakes in real time and come to fairer results.”
For example, Howard added, what might England’s fate have been back in 2010 if video review would have been online when Frank Lampard was denied an equalizer in a Round-of-16 meeting with Germany? Perhaps Ireland would have been in South Africa that summer if Thierry Henry’s handball would have been spotted by a VAR.
“Those were all clear errors that would have been able to be rectified,” Howard said.
The long-time Premier League referee references his own gaffe while in charge of the 2010 World Cup final, saying he was “lucky” his obvious error didn’t impact the outcome in Johannesburg.
Howard long acknowledges he should have sent off Dutch midfielder Nigel de Jong for serious foul play when he essentially karate kicked Spain’s Xabi Alonso in the first half of that game.
“If the Netherlands had won that game, my career would have taken a different direction,” Howard admitted, adding the insertion of video review helps referees sleep better at night.
“I can’t emphasize that enough. I’m pretty sure that whoever gets assigned to the final in Moscow, if you had a conversation with them the night before the World Cup final — the biggest game in the world, with a world wide audience of maybe a billion people — and asked them what they prefer, I’m confident whoever that official is would say they like the idea of having a colleague sitting there watching every situation that’s not only going to impact the outcome of that game and that tournament, but their career.”
Referees at this summer’s tournament will sleep easier knowing a VAR will review four key cases during every match: Goals, penalties, direct red cards and mistaken identity.
“I know referees who are remembered for one situation even though they’ve refereed 1,000 games in their career,” Howard said. “If you speak to Graham Poll, an English referee who refereed the 2006 World Cup and did Croatia-Australia, and failed to recognize he’d shown Josip Simunic a yellow and allowed him to stay on the field, he tells me not one game goes by that somebody doesn’t make reference to that one mistake.”
While the implementation of video review doesn’t eliminate subjectivity, it produces something closer to consensus when it comes to referees making gamealtering decisions.
“This is a great piece of insurance,” Howard suggested. “It gives piece of mind and comfort knowing (a VAR) is there in the background and gives piece of mind in the game.”
Now referees hear “check complete” in their headsets if no “clear and obvious” error was identified.
“The chance of one of those highly controversial situations (happening) has been minimized,” Howard said while reminding us that the on-field referee’ decision is the correct one in the absence of evidence to the contrary.