With the recent announcement from IFAB that blue cards are to be trialled in next year’s FA cup, it gives an opportunity to look at other possible rule changes that could make football better.
It’s no secret that many are disillusioned by VAR. Since its inception in the Premier League in the 2019-20 season, it has been synonymous with fan anger. However, the idea of cutting our losses and removing VAR seems impossible. This has prompted many to suggest new ways of handling VAR, such as the use of former players in the position and clearer rules surrounding many of the issues it deals with. Yet both suggestions are met with equal counter-criticism.
In cricket, however, the use of video footage in umpiring decisions has been considerably less controversial. DRS (Decision Review System) was implemented in test cricket in 2008, with it being extended to ODI and T20I in 2011 and 2017 respectively. While there have been some criticisms of the reliability of DRS, such as Ben Stokes’ comments on Zak Crawley’s dismissal in the second test against India in February 2024, they are noticeably less frequent.
DRS uses an on-field review system, making captains responsible for requesting its use, for which they have three opportunities per inning. While cricket is a much slower game than football, the use of a review-based system would at least put a limit on the number of interruptions in the match. This would also return the focus to on-field decisions making VAR an addition rather than one of the primary features of a game. This would allow VAR more time to make their decisions as they wouldn’t have been responsible for the interruption to the game, and thus feel pressured to limit the time frame of their involvement.
While this system might have its flaws, it would at least prevent us from trying to make an imperfect game perfect by making VAR a feature rather than a centre-point of football.
