UEFA has announced that more detailed VAR explanations will be part of officiating changes introduced at this summer’s European Championship in an attempt to improve clarity around decisions.
Big screens in stadiums will be used to communicate the reasoning behind decisions made, with far more specifics than fans across Europe have grown used to.
At a briefing at Allianz Arena on Wednesday evening, Roberto Rossetti, UEFA’s managing director of referees, explained the need to provide supporters with more “technical explanations” for why decisions had been reached.
For instance, if a handball has been committed, the screen will explain why the decision has been made. If, for instance, a player’s arm has been judged to be in an unnatural position.
Rossetti also explained that, as part of new guidance, referees will also be encouraged to better explain VAR decisions made to captains on the field, and that he wants “a line of dialogue” to exist between officials and captains.
Other outfield players will not be afforded the same privilege and Rossetti made it clear that harassing or “mobbing” from players, or disrespectful behaviour, would be dealt with strictly.
The feature of his presentation was the connected ball technology that will made its first appearance at a European Championship. The balls used at the tournament will contain microchips that allow precise tracking of contact, essential to the semi-automated offside technology used, but will also allow officials to detect whether, in certain situations, contact has been made at all.
Rather like the technology employed in cricket, the “snickometer’, this will be a means of detecting whether a player has touched the ball, perhaps with a hand, or whether a player in an offside position has made contact.
Rossetti also confirmed that the visual, which shows a frame-by-frame replay of the incident alongside a waveform graphic, would be shown to the public.
(Jens Schlueter/Getty Images)
Read the full article here