FIFA's embrace of technology backfires in controversy-riven World Cup

If FIFA President Gianni Infantino imagined his embrace of technology might finally put an end to disputes over refereeing decisions, the World Cup would have disabused him of the notion.

The use of technology has been at the heart of every major controversy at the tournament, including the saga around the red card for Folarin Balogun that drew in United States President Donald Trump.

Criticism of technology has ranged from charges of over-reach and inconsistency of application, to full-blown conspiracy theories that VAR was being used to determine the outcome of matches in favour of certain teams or players.

Egypt coach Hossam Hassan gave voice to all three on Tuesday after his team had a goal scratched off by VAR because of a foul at the other end of the pitch, and a penalty shout that went unchecked, before losing 3-2 to Argentina in the last 16.

“What’s happening isn’t fair,” he said.

FIFA referees’ chief Pierluigi Collina said in an interview on Wednesday that he was happy with how things were going and in particular defended the decision to disallow the Egypt goal for a foul in the lead-up.

“There is no defined limit regarding either the distance from goal or the amount of time between the incident and the goal,” he wrote.

“We believe that a foul is a foul. Regardless of whether the foul appears ‘obvious’, if the referee did not see it on the field of play, the VAR can intervene.”

The Video Assistant Referee (VAR) was initially developed as a remedy for “clear and obvious” refereeing mistakes such as Diego Maradona’s famous ‘Hand of God’ handball goal against England in the 1986 tournament.

The introduction of VAR at the World Cup was resisted by Sepp Blatter when he was FIFA president but it was quickly adopted by Infantino when he took over the job in 2016.

There were 20 VAR interventions in 64 matches at the 2018 World Cup and fewer than 30 in the same number of games in Qatar in 2022, but those numbers were quickly dwarfed in the early stages of the 2026 tournament, which will have 104 matches.

More interventions

This was deliberate with the expanded role of the now four match officials in the television booth a key plank in Collina’s strategy for the World Cup.

In collaboration with the International Football Association Board (IFAB), the custodians of the rules of the game, Collina introduced four more areas where VAR could intervene.

Network scientist Brennan Klein said a future where a panopticon of cameras and AI adjudicated the match in real time, while possible, was unlikely simply because fans had already reached their limit.

“This kind of dystopian future of over-refereeing everything kind of fails to address what it’s originally designed to intervene on,” Klein, who with his team at Northeastern University has been analysing data throughout the tournament, told Reuters.

“My sense is that fans in the stadium, by and large, just hate this. They’ve sort of been informed that this is the right way to do things, but not really had a say in it.

“I think fans seem to be voting with their boos.”

‘Abuse of technology’

Had the round-of-32 match between Croatia and Portugal taken place at the 2014 World Cup, it would almost certainly have ended up 2-2 at the end of regulation time.

Josko Gvardiol found the net in the 13th minute of stoppage time to equalise for Croatia, but VAR said the ball had touched Igor Matanovic on the way through to the defender, rendering his teammate offside.

The touch was not clear to the human eye and the ball did not noticeably deviate from its course, but a sensor embedded in the ball registered contact, possibly from Matanovic’s hair.

“(The sensor) is capable of determining any slight contact … allowing officials an unprecedented level of data to make fast, accurate decisions,” FIFA said in a social media post.

Croatia great Luka Modric, whose 24-year World Cup career came to an end with the 2-1 defeat, was unimpressed.

“For some things it’s useful, but it’s either being used incorrectly or selectively, depending on the size of the team or whatever else,” he said.

“If it’s a 200pc mistake, then you intervene. If it’s not, if it’s in a grey area, then there’s no reason to get involved.”

The Croatian football federation (HNS), who are in favour of the use of VAR, have written to FIFA asking for an explanation of the call, calling it “an abuse of technology”.

Klein said red cards had more than tripled in comparison with the 2018 and 2022 tournaments with 13 issued to players up until the end of the round of 16, albeit in 94 games compared to 64 for the two previous World Cups.

At least two of them would not have been shown before VAR with US striker Balogun and England defender Jarell Quansah sent off for fouls missed in real time by the referee.

Trump cited the “unfairness” of the red card when he revealed that he had contacted Infantino in a bid to have Balogun’s one-match ban overturned, even if the FIFA chief later said he had nothing to do with it ultimately happening.

At least Quansah’s red card and a VAR penalty awarded against his captain Harry Kane in their round-of-16 contest did not result in England going out of the World Cup.

That did not do much to calm the mood of England manager Thomas Tuchel after the dramatic 3-2 victory over Mexico at the Azteca Stadium.

“VAR overturns (but) is this a clear and obvious error for the penalty? For sure not,” said the furious German.

“They overturned a situation where (the referee) doesn’t even give a foul. Referees just not good enough, fourth officials just not good enough.”