Disgraced former FIFA official Michel Platini has slammed Video Assistant Review (VAR) in a long interview with French publication L’Equipe.
Platini said VAR “does not bring justice to the game” and said it rendered the on-field official a “puppet.”
“Take the game between France and Croatia at the World Cup,” Platini said to L’Equipe. “The VAR was in use. Yet, on the first goal where France scored from a free kick, I did not think there was a foul by the Croatian team in the build up. Then, on the second goal, it is the VAR director who makes the call rather than the referee himself. The official on the field becomes like a puppet!”
It would seem that Platini’s issue with VAR is not its ability to improve the decision-making in games, but instead its growing pains in how fallible humans adjust to using the technology available to them. “It is always open to interpretation,” Platini said.
Platini continued to share his belief that VAR will open the game to a slippery slope of technology in the game. “Who knows, maybe tomorrow the captains and goalkeepers will have headphones and the Coaches will be able to talk to them and guide them during the game. By doing this, we’ll certainly kill football, like it’s already happened in cycling and F1. We have already killed the referees.”
