The introduction of VAR was heralded as the eradication of contentious decisions in football, with unfair decisions predicted to become a thing of the past.
However, the technology has seen widespread debate and confusion reign supreme since its implementation.
In the last week, Lee Mason has left the Premier League as a full-time video assistant after a shocking error that saw Ivan Toney's late equaliser against Arsenal given, despite having failed to draw on the lines to adjudge whether Toney was offside.
But is that just the consensus in England, where VAR has proven to be one of the hottest topics in football for several years now?
Here Sportsmail takes a look at how VAR is put into practice across other major leagues across the globe to assess whether the rest of the world hates the technology, too.
Serie A – Toenail offsides!
Rushed in semi-automated offside for the second half of the current campaign after a howler earlier in the season. VAR failed to spot a defender standing out of shot of cameras when it incorrectly ruled out a late Juventus winner. Since the introduction of the ultra-accurate technology, Serie A has seen goals ruled out for armpit and toenail offsides.
Bundesliga – Accepting of errors
The Bundesliga has been doing VAR for longer than us but there’s still a few stinkers. Bochum won a dodgy penalty for handball in the DFB Cup against Borussia Dortmund earlier this month but VAR refused to overturn it.
The officials talked to the press after the game and the head of referees said: ‘Perhaps it wasn’t best to give this penalty.’ German referees are more open and German fans seem to be more accepting than match officials and supporters in England.
La Liga – Controversial goals
Spain’s referee group last month urged La Liga to implement semi-automated offside after VAR failed to rule out a goal between Cadiz and Elche. Cadiz demanded the final nine minutes of the game be replayed after Elche’s equaliser was allowed to stand, despite images appearing to show an offside in the build-up.
The Technical Committee of Referees (CTA) said: ‘Putting an end to human error is not possible, but it is possible in offside [decisions] if the semi-automatic tool is applied.’ La Liga accused the CTA of trying ‘to shift the blame’.
Ligue 1 – Pushing for clarity
The French Football Federation (FFF) recently wrote to football’s lawmakers IFAB to ask for their referees’ conversations with VAR to be broadcast. IFAB instead decided to trial referees announcing just the VAR decision in the Club World Cup, which included Premier League official Anthony Taylor.
MLS – Clear and obvious!
Howard Webb is trying to make the Premier League more open about its referees and their decisions as he did in Major League Soccer. We have seen that already in how quickly he responded to last week’s errors, revealed by The Mail on Sunday.
In the MLS, Webb introduced a weekly YouTube analysis of all the key incidents. They don’t draw lines, though, and instead only overturn offside decisions if they are obvious. This is because they prefer a quick, natural judgment but also because they do not use so many broadcast cameras.
Coaadikor
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VARCHESTER UNITED.
kupabceruz
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var is not the problem the problem is the reference in the feel as a refere any contravenes you see happens between the players you have the right to go check that's why the var is their for but if they want stea they canot even looks at it
Utwo
1
Humans should be blamed. Not VAR. If you have idiots using technology, then there will be WAR everwhere. So if it's WAR in the Premier League then surely idiots are in the command seat.
Zatklnstyz
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Sure blame the technology lol.. Much advanved VAR tech is being used in cricket for years without a problem.. In football, referee forgets to draw lines and then blames the VAR. What a hypocrisy 😂
yzi
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if VAR is man united🤔somewhere somehow someone was behind it in 2-3 against arsenal 📌
of course and 2-1 against city. rashford on offside changed everything
Kukcikmnos
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if VAR is man united🤔somewhere somehow someone was behind it in 2-3 against arsenal 📌
Fokbeklps
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Yes. VAR is useless. Don’t know what all those guys inside doing what?
pekcdkmnpr
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We'll it's nothing wrong with VAR Provided the person or persons doing the job Right like the mistake or did on purpose Like Mason did on the 18th of Feb.i have seen twice the same the Ball struck the hand its been given the other helps with the hand to regained control and scores allowed the goal to stand . ps. Mason he dan Arsenal twice obviously berhaps on purpose Okay he.has lost his job what they done its Rightly the damage its done but probably might be a crime where others involve in that case should be a Club in my opinon gor the sake of football it's to investigate for the sake of all clubs. Gone the day's where a penalty been given against a team and the manager demanding agsinst the Referee no to be allowing Ref.at their ground and he succeed only because they had an inside one of thei own. To day fifa investigate Man City how about the one above most of you know who are they.
Vudbekloy
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VAR IS SPONSORED BY MANCHESTER UNITED
tiwbdknsy
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Var is robbing Manchester United on many occasions how is u say that Liverpool is the one benefitting all the time even last nite against Newcastle but VAR was accurate this time all Var is needed for is for the ref to see the that he is correct or wrong but the problem they only check for certain clubs for Liverpool and Arsenal they are the beneficiaries many times other clubs the ref is not even checking if he w
yabadikny
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we all know that VAR is Manchester United's project
yabadikny
2
we all know that VAR is Manchester United's project