\u201cFootball is not a matter of life or death\u201d claimed Bill Shankly, an iconic former manager of Liverpool football club, \u201cit\u2019s far more important than that\u201d. Shankly, ever able to come up with a memorable line, was certainly over-egging that particular pudding, but the importance of football to billions of people around the planet shouldn\u2019t be ignored.<\/p>\n
Football is also, of course, a multi-billion dollar business. There is serious money to be made both within the game (i.e. the salaries that top players earn) and from without it (i.e. via advertising contracts, sponsoring opportunities and such like).\u00a0 It\u2019s with that in mind that FIFA, the governing body of world football, is trying to take steps to make sure that the decisions the officials on the field take are correct.<\/p>\n
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Helping referees out<\/strong><\/p>\n Being a football referee is not easy.\u00a0 The game is faster now than it ever was.\u00a0 Referees are required to be real physical athletes just to keep up with the flow of play.\u00a0 Throw in the fact that when the stakes are so high players are often more than willing to try and game officials and it becomes clear that a referee\u2019s lot is not a straightforward one.<\/p>\n Those who oversee world football have subsequently made concerted efforts over the years to help referees out. Two referees\u2019 assistants have run up and down the sidelines since as early as 1891, whilst exactly 100 years later a fourth official was introduced on the sidelines to further assistant the man\/woman in the middle. Furthermore, in 2009 two more officials were added at either end of the field for high profile international fixtures. Refereeing is clearly now a team game, too.<\/p>\n On top of the human additions, goal-line technology now tells referees when the ball has crossed the goal-line. Indeed, that has become the norm in high profile competitions like the Premier League. Furthermore, its use is now widely accepted.\u00a0 It was not always thus.<\/p>\n The use of technology to help referees out has not stopped there.\u00a0 In 2018 the notion of a Video Assistant Referee (VAR) was written in to the laws of the game. \u00a0In essence, the system is simple. Video technology can be used to assess whether errors have been made in four areas; in the run up to a goal being scored, in penalty decisions, in decisions that lead to straight red cards and to cases of mistaken identity (i.e. when red or yellow cars have been awarded incorrectly). If it becomes clear that the referee has made a mistake, the decision will be overturned.<\/p>\n The referee can ask the team of officials operating VAR to look at decisions he\/she has made or officials can unilaterally choose to check decisions. Either way, the aim is to help stamp out really bad refereeing calls.<\/p>\n The proof of the pudding <\/strong><\/p>\n In many ways the logic behind VAR is impeccable.\u00a0 Who can\u2019t want to see correct decisions being made? But, the devil lies in the detail and football\u2019s technology buffs could do worse than look at the world of anti-corruption to see why the theory doesn\u2019t always match the practice.<\/p>\n As in football, no one wants to see more corruption.\u00a0 No one argues that corruption (read \u2018bad referring decisions\u2019) is to be encouraged. But anti-corruption scholars and activists have long since learnt that whilst using technology to fight corruption can work (see this<\/a> great example where potential corruption cases in aid projects can be tracked, for example) it can never provide all the answers.<\/p>\n One such example comes from Brazil. A computer programme called Rosie<\/a> has been developed to keep an eye on the expenses\u2019 claims that Brazilian parliamentarians make.\u00a0 Why?\u00a0 Well, Brazilian MPs have a history of buffing up their expenses so as to make a little extra money on the side.\u00a0 Rosie doesn\u2019t just look at how many Reals have been claimed, she looks at what they have been claimed for and whether that claim is out of line with what should broadly have been expected.\u00a0 If a given claim looks anomalous, Rosie alerts real people so that they can investigate further.<\/p>\n