VAR technology and the story surrounding the 'all-seeing eye'.

The nearly 50-day break in the 2023 V-League is said to be for the Vietnam U20 team to compete in the Asian Championship finals and for training.Vietnam national teamThe U22 Vietnam team is preparing to defend their SEA Games 31 gold medal, but in reality, it's to train referees and move towards applying VAR technology in V-League matches. This is encouraging news, as Vietnamese sports in general, and football in particular, are gradually catching up with the new trends in modern football management, although compared to the world, we are still quite far behind.

The referee's assistance screen is located in the center of the stadium, behind the pitch. Photo: Getty.

The practical application of technology in football in advanced football nations, as well as the performance of the Vietnamese national team in the recent 3rd round of the 2022 World Cup qualifiers and the current national volleyball championship, demonstrates the urgent need for this. A significant advantage is that identifying the strengths and weaknesses of refereeing technology in recent years will help us avoid unnecessary mistakes and implement what is considered best practice to truly improve the effectiveness and quality of competition, ensuring the utmost objectivity and fairness for teams and players.

But ultimately, technology is machines, it's objective, but the review and decision-making are done by humans, so in reality, regrettable mistakes still occur, affecting the outcome of a match, or even the performance of a team in a season. The storyrefereeVAR and Arsenal in the Premier League are a compelling example of this.

VAR training course at VPF headquarters. Source: thanhnien.vn

Referee Lee Mason had officiated in the Premier League for 15 years, but his mistake of not marking an offside line, leading to a goal for Brentford, ultimately led to his dismissal from this vibrant and high-quality league. Furthermore, following numerous errors caused by VAR, after the Arsenal-Brrentford match and then the Brighton-Palace match, the VAR management had to hold an emergency meeting and thoroughly address all related issues. However, the referees' final whistle, after careful consultation with VAR, still resulted in Arsenal – a title contender – losing two points that they couldn't recover. Therefore, the most important thing remains the fairness of the people using the technology in this case.

Thus, thanks to the application of technology, referee decisions on the field have become more accurate and fairer in many cases. However, not everything has been handled as many people expected. The emotions of players and fans are constantly tested, as true joy only comes after waiting and consulting VAR. Joy comes, but disappointment immediately follows if VAR finds an error, if VAR forces everyone to stop and change their attitude in an instant. The famous Brazilian team played exceptionally well at the 2014 World Cup on home soil, but were utterly disappointed when VAR intervened, ruining the match with a series of offside errors made by attacking players, a long-standing habit that is very difficult to break.

This situation isn't unique to football; tennis and volleyball also have similar problems. Matches are often stopped to resolve disputes between teams or players. Sometimes the dispute is justified thanks to technology that determines the ball's landing point or whether the ball touched a hand. But other times, the dispute is used by coaches to dampen the opponent's momentum, a tactic to help their team regain balance.

VAR screens have been installed at My Dinh Stadium. Photo: FPT Play

To put it simply, applying referee-assisting technologies in general, and technologies like VAR (video assistant referee) or Goal-line technology in particular, is essential for achieving higher quality in sports and minimizing avoidable refereeing errors, which have always been a source of public frustration and left many undesirable impressions on sports history.

For the V-League, following the current training camp, which is considered important and necessary, the hope is that each time VAR is involved, it will bring a positive result in every match. The hope is that VAR will neither benefit nor harm anyone, but only best serve what the naked eye cannot see, what happens in a split second that even the average person cannot immediately answer accurately. Only technology—the all-seeing eye—can do that, helping humans achieve the best possible results and make the most accurate decisions after receiving assistance and guidance from the "all-seeing eye."

Bui Hoa