Baseball has created the very popular Next-Gen Stats. This technology lets fans know details that would be impossible to figure out with the blind eye. These stats include: home run distance, speed of the baseball off the bat, and hitting power.

   Next-Gen Stats have also reached football. Such stats can show how unlikely a play is to occur. This program has spread as fast as a wildfire. Unlike this technology, soccer’s Video Assistant Referee has only garnered controversy. Because of its lack of success, VAR should be removed and redeveloped in order to fix the injustices it provides to the game.

  Soccer is a ninety-minute sport played without stoppages, except for halftime. However, soccer can stop other things. Pele, the most famous soccer player ever to play the sport, once stopped a war for one day because the warring nations chose to watch him play.

   Now, with the addition of VAR, there are breaks in the action after every cry for a handball or offsides. Without VAR, referees would still get most calls right, and the athletes could continue to run around and entertain. This is the biggest problem associated with the virtual device.

   The main reason people fall in love with soccer is that they do not have to watch three and a half minutes of radio silence for every five minutes of gameplay. Soccer is the only sport to not subject their viewers to constant commercials. Commercials ruin the enjoyment. Nobody enjoys watching stoppages.

   VAR is supposed to be used for penalty kick decisions, goals, and hard fouls. However, VAR is an insect that has infested the whole sport. Instead of making the decisions that are close, they pick situations that are way too close to be determined by artificial intelligence.

   One example of a too close call was during a Liverpool versus Wolves game. Liverpool is the league leader of the Premier League, who have only not been victorious on one occasion. They are one pace for a record one hundred and twelve points, which is great. Everyone loves Liverpool.

   In this game, which the Wolves could have beaten Liverpool, the Wolves scored a goal and were given a disallowed point. VAR was used to check if the player was offsides. VAR determined that the player was less than a millimeter offside, which should never be called if one is offside by a margin that no person could see.

  Another example of VAR treachery was during a Champions league quarter final match between Tottenham and Manchester City. The Champions League is composed of the best of the best teams from across the top leagues. Manchester City was making a historic comeback and were one goal away when it happened. In the final minute of the game, City crossed the ball in and scored the winning goal.

   What would VAR say? VAR claimed that the ball touched a player’s arm, and therefore could not count. It was an outrage, as I have been a City fan for my whole life. The rule is that the ball is good to be played if the arm is at the player’s side and does not take up additional space, which was the case.

   VAR has made horrific calls, and it needs to be removed or at least stick to the calls that it gets right: goal line decisions, fouls, and penalties in the box.

  Video Assistant Referees’ have caused many problems. They must either be removed or used less. VAR has disrupted the flow of the game. Stoppages plague entertainment. Some extreme situations, which have only increased since the technological addition, are major failures.

   Fans from across the leagues and even the players themselves have protested the VAR issue for a while now. In one poll, ninety-four percent of people expect VAR to be problematic on the daily. This technology was a massive failure, but that should not stop the creators from trying to fix it. VAR must be protested. VAR must be stopped.

   Join the fight against VAR. Do not stop until victory has been reached like the Americans in the American Revolution.