Time to show FIFA a red card

It’s bad enough that soccer is already the only major sport that produces “highlight” reels showing what almost happened during 90 minutes of non-action.

Now FIFA, in its infinite wisdom, has ordained that video assistant referee technology (VAR) will be used at this summer’s World Cup finals in Russia, further stultifying a game that’s desperately in need of more pace.

FIFA president Gianni Infantino sugar-coated last week’s announcement in Zurich, saying all the right things about building “a more transparent and fairer sport” and giving the living, breathing game officials “muchneeded help” — but it was a hollow endorsement.

The landmark decision to use VAR at the World Cup came two weeks after FIFA’s rules panel voted to write video technology into the laws of soccer, and Infantino has pledged improved communication with officials and fans to make the system work.

World Cup referees will be empowered to call on VAR to review and overturn “clear and obvious errors,” as well as “serious missed incidents” involving goals, penalties, red cards, and mistaken identity on sanctions.

Sounds good in theory, right? But in the real world, it sucks. VAR’s biggest impact will be to prolong games and subject soccer fans to the same momentum-killing stoppages that infuriate aficionados of the NBA, NHL and NFL.

There are now 14 — count ’em, 14! — on-court incidents that qualify for review in the NBA, all of which are painstakingly analyzed by a “war room” video crew in New Jersey. The NHL is even worse. As of last weekend, there had been 237 reviews of a single call — offside — so far this season, all relayed to Toronto for a second (and third, and fourth) look. And don’t get me started on the lunacy of NFL video stoppages.

Now soccer is headed down the same pernicious path.

In 18 months of worldwide trials — including in the Bundesliga, Serie A and at the 2017 Confederations Cup in Russia — VAR reviews have proven to be much slower than anticipated and communication in the stadiums has been hit-andmiss, at best.

“Obviously, it is not a perfect system and we are not going to reach 100 percent perfection,” Infantino said in making the announcement. “What we definitely want to do is help.”

FIFA should be shown a red card, because a recent British survey indicated that even the most experienced VAR officials — several of whom have handled many more matches than most referees who will work at the 64-game World Cup — aren’t sold on it.

FIFA’s solution is to ignore the experienced guys and train a new batch of 36 refs, plus their teams of assistants, for duty in Russia. And most of them are from countries and regions that don’t use VAR in their domestic leagues.

Until video reviews came into vogue, much of the lure and lore of every major sport was the random impact of human error. In soccer, for better or worse, that’s what created the legends surrounding Geoff Hurst’s goal for England against West Germany in the 1966 World Cup final, Maradona’s “Hand of God” goal against England in the ’86 WC quarterfinal and the blatant handball by France’s Thierry Henry against Ireland in their WC qualifying playoff in Paris in 2009.

Human mistakes by players, coaches and referees have always played a major role in the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat.

Using microchips and lasers to correct them just doesn’t seem, well ... sporting. Contact the writer at murray greig@chinadaily.com.cn