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Video reviews are already proving their worth in MLS
Slowly but surely, technology is making its mark on world soccer. Goal-line technology is already helping rule out goals in the Premier League, Germany's Bundesliga, France's Ligue 1 and Italy's Serie A and FIFA will soon embark on its plan to track players' fitness in real time. But there's also something happening in some leagues around the world that could all but remove contentious decisions from the game: video assistant referees (VAR). This weekend, after a year of preliminary testing in official matches, video replays were unveiled at Major League Soccer matches, and it didn't take long for them to show their effectiveness.
FIFA’s tech ‘experiments’ drag soccer into the modern age
Soccer is the most popular sport in the world. It may not be as big as American football, baseball or basketball in the US -- at least not yet-- but there's a much larger interest in it here now than five or 10 years ago. One of the problems with soccer is that, unlike pro sports organizations such as the NFL, NBA or MLB, it has never been quick to adopt new technology. For decades FIFA, the sport's governing body, opposed cutting-edge ideas that could keep referees from making the wrong calls. "We shall rely on human beings," former FIFA President Sepp Blatter said in 2002. "Players make mistakes, coaches make mistakes and yes, sometimes referees make mistakes. But football is passion, football is emotion. Football has a human touch."
2018 FIFA World Cup will be the first with instant replay
Soccer (or, to the rest of the world, football) traditionalists have shunned video replay for years, claiming it would alter the sanctity of referees' calls. But well-documented flubbed calls like those that erroneously eliminated England and Mexico in the 2010 World Cup have nudged FIFA into considering the technology. At long last, after getting implemented at professional levels, it's headed to the game's biggest stage: On-field instant replay is coming to the World Cup for the first time in 2018, when Russia hosts the tournament.
FIFA will test in-game video replays next year
It took FIFA, soccer's governing body, years to bring goal-line technology into the sport. And even now that the system is approved, there are only a few leagues world taking advantage of it. Still, that decision showed the organization's willingness to evolve and keep up with other sports. Today FIFA, along with the International Football Association Board (which sets the rules for soccer), is taking another step forward by approving tests of video replays to review controversial plays during matches.
MLS aims to be first soccer league to tackle video replay
While goal-line technology debuted for both World Cup and English Premier League action this year, Major League Soccer is looking to take video assistance one step further. MLS commissioner Don Garber told Sports Illustrated that the league wants to be the first to test a replay system that would allow officials to review calls on the pitch after a coach's challenge. FIFA's president Sepp Blatter, the head of soccer's international governing body, has already called for testing next year in league action and during the Under-20 World Cup in New Zealand. It's worth noting that MLS has yet to employ the goal-line systems due to cost, but the instant replay kit could be less expensive to adopt. However, due to its status as an up-and-comer when compared to other professional soccer leagues, MLS could be a prime candidate for the trials. In the US, NFL and MLB already use a similar video system allowing coaches' challenges to help correct errors in officiating -- but only for a few calls. Of course, it comes at the expense of slowing down the action for replays that can sometimes take several minutes to sort. [Photo credit: Otto Greule Jr/Getty Images]
