MLS launches new video replay system
CHICAGO — A big red button sitting in front of four computer screens looked like it belonged in a cartoon, the tool of an evil villain glowing in a small, dark room at Toyota Park.
“You’ll notice what looks like a missile launch button here,” said James Japhet, a representative responsible for explaining the technology. “It isn’t. That is for the VAR to actually indicate the play is something he would actually like to look at. It’s a physical move in order to start the review or start the check process.”
VAR stands for Video Assistant Referee, a concept heavily debated since its inception but that will launch in Major League Soccer on Aug. 5, the day Orlando City plays the Montreal Impact.
MLS is at the forefront of a worldwide VAR initiative by the International Football Association Board. The process consists of an additional referee that has access to video from every available broadcast angle in order to review and reverse clearly wrong decisions.
Japhet is the managing director of North America for Hawk-Eye, the company that makes the instantreplay technology used in 24 sports across the world.
The VAR will be used in only four situations based on IFAB protocol: 1. Goals; 2. Penalty/No penalty decisions; 3. Direct red cards; and 4. Mistaken identity
Many player and soccer enthusiasts lamented the decision to implement instant replay, worried the process would change the flow of the game. In a presentation explaining the system further, world renowned referee Howard Webb, who was hired by MLS to give seminars on the launch of VAR, said that will not be the case.
“If we change the game, then it’s not doing the job that it’s meant to do,” Webb said with assured confidence in a seminar Tuesday during MLS All-Star week. “The game is beautiful, we love it for what it is. It’s fast-flowing, it has ebb and tempo and flow, and it’s not a series of stops and set pieces. We are not trying to change that. We are just trying to give our officials a better opportunity to avoid making clear errors, the kind of errors that change games and can be quickly rectified on video replay.”
The question VARs will COMMENTARY be asked to answer, he said, is not “Was that call right?” It is, “Was that call clearly wrong?”
Numbers collected throughout the extensive test period, which included 90 MLS matches, show VAR will slow down the game but very slightly.
A total of 701 checks were made by the VAR in those matches, an average of 8.9 per game. Checks occur constantly within the VAR booth but do not stop the game. Of those checks, 26 led to reviews, about one every three games.
According to data presented by Webb, without video review the average amount of time it takes for play to resume after one of those four instances is a minute, 25 seconds. Video review took an average of two minutes, 41 seconds, an increase of 1:16.
This is how it works. Four people will be in the VAR booth: an operator who controls the playback and various video angles; the VAR, who makes the decisions as to what will be reviewed; an assistant VAR, who watched live play while the VAR is reviewing another play and who communicates with the on-field officials and others needing to know a review is underway; and a technology assistant in case anything goes wrong in that area.
The screens in the room include a live-action screen, a touch-screen that is delayed three seconds and can be manipulated by the VAR and the operator’s screen which can access all of the minimum eight camera angles provided.
When the VAR sees a play that needs to be checked, they hit the red button. That starts a timer on the screen and also alerts the others in the room that a play is getting looked at. After watching the play again, the VAR will decide whether it should be under review.
At that point, the decision is communicated to the on-field official immediately and others through a messaging system called Slack. The on-field official will signal a review is underway by using his fingers to draw a rectangle shape in the air.
After review, the VAR will make a recommendation on the call, and the on-field official can decide whether to review the play via a screen on the sideline or to directly take the recommendation.
To maintain the integrity of the VAR process, no cellphones are allowed in the room and the entire process is recorded. Certain footage of the decisionmaking process must be submitted to IFAB and MLS.
The initiative still has critics, and Webb acknowledged it will not be without issues. He went through various scenarios where a review underway while play continued could result in a goal negated. Also, if a play is under review and the ball goes out of bounds, play cannot restart until the review is over. So, teams could begin to strategically kick the ball out of bounds in these situations.
“The take home message is, things are always being checked, reviews are only done when a clear error is identified,” Webb said. “We’ll make some mistakes ... but we're hoping that the big bulk of situations are ones that people say, ‘Thank goodness we’ve got VAR.’”