Fastest VAR promise fails in World Cup opening

VAR was the protagonist of the first goal of the World Cup, just 3 minutes into the opening match between Qatar and Ecuador. The goal scored by Ecuadorian Enner Valencia was disallowed for offside, in a controversial move.

After a free kick, the Qatari goalkeeper Al Sheeb was knocked out and the ball was left for the attack of Ecuador. In the hit and rebound, Enner Valencia sent a header into the net.

At first, the Italian referee Daniele Orsato confirmed the goal, but then there was a review by the VAR, commanded by the also Italian Massimiliano Irrati, who pointed out that Estrada was offside, also part of the bid.

Between the goal and the confirmation of the offside, there were two minutes of analysis, which contradicts FIFA’s initial objective, which promised greater agility in these decisions.

At a press conference on Friday (18), the Italian Pierluigi Collina, head of arbitration at the entity, said that the “semi-automatic offside technology” would decide the bids more quickly.

According to the entity, the VAR takes, on average, 70 seconds in the bidding conference. The new technology was supposed to reduce the time to 20 or 25 seconds.

The technology used by FIFA to point out offside is based on 12 cameras spread throughout the stadium, to track 29 points on each player’s body. A sensor inside the ball sends data to the video referee’s room 500 times per second.

The equipment issues an alert to the VAR room when the ball is received by an attacker who would be in an offside position. After analysis, the decision is passed on to the field referee.

Next, a 3D animation is made to, according to FIFA, “show the best possible perspectives for an offside situation”. The animation image is displayed on the broadcast and on the stadium screen.

According to the organisation, this new technology was tested at the Arab Cup, in December last year, and at the Club World Cup, in February this year.