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Discussion: How to fix Soccer’s VAR issues?

Everyone else is talking about it. So why not us?

Manchester City v Sheffield United - Premier League Photo by Michael Regan/Getty Images

Happy Holidays, DSS! Apologies for the lack of activity around here these past few days. We’re anticipating the news to start ramping up quickly after the New Year. In the meantime, I thought it would be interesting to pose one of the biggest questions surrounding this beautiful sport to our community. How the heck do you fix VAR?

It’s impossible to escape the constant debates regarding video review in soccer these days. Unless you completely tune any and all soccer-related talk out of your lives until Atlanta United is playing, you’ve surely come across or even been a part of some lively discussion on the topic.

The most recent hot talking point to come up have been marginal offside calls, specifically in the Premier League. They have introduced a new technology that utilizes special cameras and on-screen technology that can supposedly tell if a player is millimeters offside. This hyper-focus on the margins has caused an uproar.

My biggest complaint about VAR and soccer’s rules in general is the absence of common sense. This sport is not cut and dry. To treat every instance as if it is, acts to hurt the game. I choose to believe the majority of referees are smart people and are only confused by the constantly changing and complex rules that no one can seem to agree on.

So, I pose this question to you. How can Soccer fix VAR?

The Australian A-League has recently introduced some very smart ideas in regards to filling the TV-watching audience in on the VAR protocol. Audio between the Video Assistant Referee and the on-field Referee is relayed in real-time to inform the people watch of what’s going on. To me, this is a brilliant step and one that would quell a lot of the controversies.

Would the implementation of this help? Or would it eventually lead to other problems?

Head to the comments and give your feelings on the whole VAR dilemma. What changes would you make? What ideas would you like to see introduced around the world? Do you want to scrap the whole thing? Sound off below.