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The Take

Is VAR the villain of the World Cup?

20 min • 16 november 2022

If you’re not already familiar with VAR, or video assistant referee, during the 2022 World Cup you’re about to become very familiar with it. Refereeing with video replay can mean overturning goals, ejecting players, and plenty of moans and cheers. This time, VAR is back with semi-automation to determine if players are offside, with cameras and sensors tracking every limb on the pitch. When it was introduced for the first time at a World Cup in 2018, it changed the tournament – with passionate disagreement about whether that was for better or for worse. So what does VAR have in store for this World Cup?

In this episode: 

  • Tony Karon (@TonyKaron), editorial lead at AJ+
  • Abdulla al-Marri (@Referee_Qtr), World Cup video assistant referee 

Episode credits:

This episode was produced by Alexandra Locke with Negin Owliaei and our host Halla Mohieddeen. It was fact-checked by Ruby Zaman. The production team includes Chloe K. Li, Alexandra Locke, Ashish Malhotra, Negin Owliaei, Amy Walters, and Ruby Zaman. Our sound designer is Alex Roldan. Aya Elmileik and Adam Abou-Gad are our engagement producers. Ney Alvarez is Al Jazeera's head of audio.

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