Five basic principles to make VAR a success

#1 The V and R in VAR stand for Video and Referee

VAR will never replace the human connection between players, managers and match officials

Refereeing a football match at any level is a challenging and difficult task, but while the decision making and technical elements of managing a game have been heavily highlighted above, there are human aspects to consider too.

To effectively officiate, a referee must command the respect of the players and coaches involved, and there are many psychological ways of doing this. A stern warning or a quiet word together with a laugh and a joke in the early stages can all have a huge effect on the remainder of the match. It is a quality that VAR is unable to provide.

Basically, the human referee is far more important than the virtual assistant, and the thought process must be to not let VAR dictate proceedings. The match referees must remain in complete control, and how they communicate with those responsible for reviewing the action must only be to ensure that nothing significant has been clearly been missed or misinterpreted.

Will refereeing ever be perfect? No. Will VAR eradicate all wrong decisions? No. Will a world-record fee for Neymar make him the perfect player? No. Will any player ever play without making any sort of mistake? No. And that is exactly why we love it so much.