NAN-S-6
By Kemi Ajayi
Lagos, June 19, 2017 (NAN) Some football stakeholders on Monday in Lagos differed in their assessments of the introduction of the innovative Video Assistant Referee (VAR) at the ongoing 2017 FIFA Confederations Cup in Russia.
The News Agency reports that the device caused a controversy in the encounter between Cameroon and Chile in which Chile’s Eduardo Vargas appeared to have opened the scoring in the first half.
He put the ball in the net, it was awarded, and then it was taken away for offside, the development made it obvious that FIFA has plenty of loose knots to tie with the technology used in-game.
It was against this backdrop that Emmanuel Amuneke, a former Super Eagles midfielder, told NAN that the use of the technology by FIFA was to ensure improvement in the sport.
The ex-international said that many countries and clubs had been robbed of their victories over the years due to poor officiating, adding that the VAR would help to address irregularities in officiating.
“It’s a good development as far as football is concerned globally and the aim is to improve on the sport.
“FIFA wants to ensure that any team that wins a match does that convincingly without any controversy and that is how football should be,” the former Super Eagles attacking midfielder added.
In the same vein, Kayode Tijani, a renowned football analyst, told NAN that the VAR was a plus for football officiating.
Tijani said that football fans around the world would embrace the change with time.
“Football fans around the world are divided over the VAR and what I saw in the two matches played at the Confederation Cup showed that FIFA is on the right track as far as officiating is concerned.
“Football is the biggest sport in the world and if it is still marred with controversies as a result of officiating then something is wrong.
“There was a time when football was not played for 90 minutes and goalkeepers didn’t wear gloves, but as time went on changes came, so I believe people will get used to this changes if effected by FIFA,” he told NAN.
Meanwhile, Samuel Bayo, an undergraduate of the University of Lagos has expressed his displeasure at the use of VAR.
Bayo said that the VAR would rob football of its glamour and thrills if used at the forthcoming 2018 World Cup in Russia.
“The VAR is totally nonsense as far as football is concerned because it delays a match and can also dampen the morale of players.
“After celebrating a goal that was counted as a goal by a referee, a machine somewhere suddenly disallows it in the name of fair officiating.
“Football is a game of win and lose and it should remain like that,” he said.
NAN reports that the VAR is an association football assistant referees that review decisions made by the head referee with the use of video footage and a headset for communication.
The International Football Association Board (IFAB), the body that regulates the laws of football, approved the use of video referees in trials during its June 2016 meeting. (NAN)
KOA/ERO/PDE
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(Edited by Emmanuel Okara/Peter Ejiofor)