FIFA standing by video review
PARIS — The addition of video review at the Women’s World Cup has created confusion and prompted questions.
Video Assistant Referee was integrated into the men’s World Cup in Russia last year, leading to calls for it to also be used for the women’s soccer tournament this summer in France, but it certainly hasn’t gone as smoothly as it did for the men.
VAR has already led to a change in the rules for the knockout stage of the tournament. Some have suggested there has been an overreliance on the technology, and there have been complaints it is causing delays and interrupting the flow of the game.
FIFA officials insist the system is working as intended.
“The VAR cannot be blind, cannot ignore,” Pierluigi Collina, chairman of FIFA’s refereeing committee, said Wednesday. “If you have a tool that offers you the possibility to check, you have to check.”
Through 44 matches at this Women’s World Cup, there were 441 incidents checked through the course of play and 29 VAR reviews, FIFA said. That’s one review per 1.52 matches. Of those reviews, 25 resulted in decisions being changed, meaning four were confirmed.
There have been a record 23 penalty kicks heading into the quarterfinals that start today, surpassing the 22 taken across the entire 2011 Women’s World Cup in Canada. Eleven were awarded after VAR usage. Three were cancelled after VAR usage.
Collina maintains VAR helps on-field officials by making sure calls are correct in the high-pressure setting of the tournament while also protecting teams from bad calls that might impact advancement.
Kari Seitz, FIFA’s senior manager of refereeing, insisted VAR is not changing the way games are being officiated.
“We instruct the referees to referee as they would referee (without VAR), and that is really a critical point,” Seitz said. “They are out there officiating like they would officiate with or without VAR. That hasn’t changed. Refereeing remains the same, but with the parachute, with the opportunity to correct those big mistakes or those things the video evidence shows us.”
Last week, the use of VAR prompted a rule change going into the round of 16.
The rule was meant to give goalkeepers more flexibility, making them keep just one foot, not two, on the goal line during penalty kicks. The use of VAR strictly enforced the rule, with goalkeepers given little time to adjust. FIFA feared more goalkeepers could be penalized and ejected from games, a concern because no substitutes are allowed during shootouts.
So FIFA received approval from the game’s lawmaking body last week to suspend the requirement that goalkeepers be shown yellow cards for stepping off the goal line during penalty shootouts, which means goalkeepers can only be booked at the tournament for stepping off the line during a penalty kick in normal time. The kick will still be retaken, however.
The law could be revisited at future meetings of the International Football Association Board, which includes four FIFA delegates and a representative from each of the four British associations.
“I mean, they’re calling it very tight, and I guess we didn’t really know coming into the tournament how tight they were really going to call it,” U.S. goalkeeper Alyssa Naeher said at the end of the group stage. “I think the last few games has obviously shown what they can and will call.
“So I think it’s just something to keep in the back of my mind, trying not to dwell on it or think about it too much and have it affect what I’m doing and how I’m playing. But it’s obviously something you have to be aware of.”
The rule became a concern in the group stage when Scotland goalkeeper Lee Alexander saved a penalty kick by Argentina’s Florencia Bonsegundo in stoppage time. VAR showed Alexander had moved just inches off her line, and Bonsegundo scored on the retake, tying the game at 3-3 and scuttling Scotland’s hopes of going through to the knockout stage.