BERLIN (Xinhua) -- Five years after its introduction, the Video Assistant Referee (VAR) remains one of football’s most controversial topics.
While statistics say the sport has gained fairness, most fans in European leagues draw a more controversial picture.
In a recent survey by Sport magazine Kicker, 70.2 percent of the 36,000 surveyed German fans say football has lost main parts of its emotionality and regard the implementation as poorly executed.
In the English Premier League, only one-third of supporters voted in favor of the VAR and say the new tool improved competition, according to a survey by BBC sports that covered 2,500 fans.
The German fan association “ProFans” said the minor improvement regarding fairness stands in no relation to the drop and loss of emotions in the arenas and in front of television sets.
A majority of fans demanded to skip the VAR and return to what they call the pure football experience of the past, including cases of apparent injustice.
The often-delayed celebration of scored goals is vanishing as a significant part of football’s values and attractiveness.
Fans complain about the annoying time frame until decisions are made. Many say that while only a few seconds or minutes pass, the break feels like an eternity and only second-hand emotions are left after in case a goal finds approval.
As a fact, decisions took 57 seconds on average in the first two VAR seasons but increased in the 2021-2022 campaign to 74 seconds.
In international comparison, the German leagues seem to come off rather good. “But us referees can understand that things feel like ages for fans, players, and coaches,” FIFA referee Deniz Aytekin confirmed.
The German referee said reliability must come before promptness.
To at least speed up off-side decisions, a semi-automatic system has been tested in the UEFA Supercup final between Real Madrid and Eintracht Frankfurt. The technology is planned to be used at the 2022 Qatar World Cup and reduce decision time to only 25 seconds.
Several drastic cases jeopardize fans’ and players’ acceptance.
Former England international Garry Lineker sarcastically commented on a German league game between Mainz and Freiburg in April 2018.