A Modest Proposal
Replace VAR With AI
Before the World Cup goes back to Europe and becomes the Premier League again, a modest proposal.
Bring in Artificial Intelligence.
This Video Assisted Referee (VAR) crap takes too long. Three guys watch TV while the real referee stands by, and then he runs off to join them in watching a screen.
It’s ridiculous. It’s destroying the game.
But there is a solution. AI.
You have sensors in the ball, sensors on the players, cameras everywhere. The rules aren’t complicated. There’s plenty of data, the database can be shared, and it can deliver answers instantly.
Why aren’t you even testing this? Why hasn’t some clever AI company, say Google, created it and offered to test it, alongside existing VAR, for free? This is so simple an open-source company like Perplexity could do it, in exchange for credit. All you’re doing is applying rules to data. The database isn’t that big. You don’t have to send it to the cloud.
The refs are already wearing earpieces. AI can deliver a decision as fast as a referee without VAR once did, with greater accuracy. You can then put the play on the big screen every team already has, immediately after the call is made.
It’s not hard. The benefits are crystal clear. Speed, reliability, no interruption in the flow of the game.
And while you’re at it, anyone who needs water can either come to the sidelines or grab a drink when the trainers come on to put magic spray on someone who just faked an injury to draw a foul. Then yellow card those who weren’t fouled for simulation. With AI.