Are VAR and TMO ruining the spectacle of sport? - The Front Page

The sending-off of Sam Cane has sparked controversy. Photo / Getty Images

In this week’s dramatic football match between Tottenham and Chelsea, the first half was 56 minutes long but only included 23 minutes of action on the pitch.

The rest of that time was filled with stoppages, largely due to the number of refereeing calls being referred to the VAR team.

This comes off the back of the highly controversial Rugby World Cup final, which was also dominated by a handful of decisions made by the TMO team sitting in their studio looking at the action replays of major events.

VAR and TMO are essentially video assistant referees who watch replays of moments in a match to ensure the best possible calls are being made.

These systems came about to improve accuracy, but there are growing concerns that these technological steps are interfering with the flow of the games we love.

Newstalk ZB breakfast sports anchor Andrew Alderson tells The Front Page podcast that while VAR and TMO have improved accuracy, it’s also opened the door to even more debate.

“Any way you can add accuracy to a sport surely has to help that sport, but it does seem rife with problems,” Alderson says.

“Every now and again, [you have debate] over the 1 per centers - the things that people have different views on.”

The debate after the game about the nature of the calls has actually had the unintended consequence of adding further pressure on officials to make sure that they get things right.

If anything, it’s created an incentive for officials to take that little bit longer to ensure accuracy is prioritised over everything else.

“Where we’ve been getting into trouble is these elongated discussions that seemingly go on forever. You lose the complete flow of the game. Steve Hansen spoke about this in the Herald. He said it’s got out of context and out of perspective to the extent where you end up with too much dominance towards that rather than the referee just seeking a bit of advice.

“I think it’s broken the confidence of officials at times as well. They just think they’re going to be lambasted and hauled over the coals for minor errors, so they’re constantly using it as a safety net.”

All decisions made in the TMO or VAR room are informed by the rulebooks of the sport, but there are also concerns about perceived inconsistency across key decisions.

This came to the fore during the Rugby World Cup final, with New Zealand fans questioning why Sam Cane got a red card but Siya Kolisi was punished with a yellow for comparable offences.

“With those two incidents, I think they got them right,” says Alderson.

“I see more mitigating circumstances for the Kolisi incident than I could for Cane. Albeit, that wasn’t dirty play by Cane and he’s been sent off the field.”

Alderson believes the TMO could improve if an approach similar to that seen in the NRL was applied to rugby union.

“Things will go report and get reviewed later,” says Alderson, explaining that, particularly in big games, this ensures the spectacle isn’t ruined by the removal of a player prematurely.

So is there any hope of fans becoming more accepting of VAR and TMO? Or will post-match criticism and abuse of referees just become the new normal?

Listen to the full episode of The Front Page for a full rundown on this controversy.

The Front Page is a daily news podcast from the New Zealand Herald, available to listen to every weekday from 5am. It is presented by Damien Venuto, an Auckland-based journalist with a background in business reporting who joined the Herald in 2017.

You can follow the podcast at iHeartRadio, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.