Top 100 momentsNo. 81
VAR at the World Cup
Video assistant referees go to a World Cup in Russia. Offsides become milliseconds. The argument about the soul of the game gets a headset.
Russia 2018 is the first World Cup with VAR. Goals are checked. Penalties are given that would have been folklore. France win the tournament. The conversations in bars are about lines on a monitor.
Soccer had sold itself as continuous, human, and slightly unjust. Technology promises justice and delivers delay. Later semi-automated offsides will make it colder still.
Whether VAR is good is a separate fight. 2018 is when the world’s biggest tournament admitted the referee’s eyes were not enough, and the sport has not sounded the same since.