Humans vs Machine: Who's to Blame?

VAR officiating continues to make headlines every week, especially in the Premier League, for its controversial decisions. Amongst all the chaos and debate, it is easy to forget that VAR is simply a machine, and that the humans controlling the system are just as much to blame.

Yesterday, Football Park tackled the debate of whether Premier League referees are the worst in Europe, concluding that they were simply put under heightened scrutiny as officials of the most-watched league in the world.

Today, we aim to analyse and compare the impact of VAR and human error on refereeing quality and the overall viewing experience, in an attempt to break down who the real culprit is behind the regular blunders.

No foul. No VAR check.

Liverpool score 30 seconds later.

If this doesn’t sum up the Premier League season 2024-2025 nothing will. pic.twitter.com/uVM5zJ1w6A

— M (@MKTIRB) May 11, 2025

The Legacy of Human Error

Unlike computers, humans have always been a part of football, officials have been enforcing the laws of the game since the 19th century, and their ability to make humane mistakes has never ceased. Whether it be West Germany’s penalty in the 1990 World Cup Final, or Frank Lampard’s ghost goal at the 2010 World Cup, human error existed before VAR, and therefore was always going to continue to occur when the technology was introduced.

For mankind, perfection is unattainable, whilst fans hold high expectations, even supporters themselves would be unable to get every decision correct, especially with the fast nature of the beautiful game. That, however, is no excuse for mistakes that seem too obvious to miss. Referees face huge pressure throughout their careers, knowing that a decision could impact their job for life.

Still think the best goal Lampard scored was the one that got disallowed again Germany! 😭😭😭 pic.twitter.com/UGYgJ0goAc

— Footy Accumulators (@FootyAccums) February 2, 2017

The Promise of VAR

When Arsene Wenger said that VAR would be a “massive improvement for the fairness of the game” in 2016, no one could tell him that it wouldn’t. Its introduction and purpose was simple: to reduce clear and obvious errors and ensure fairer outcomes. The footballing world was fed up with the mistakes being made and wanted to create a safety net that could catch the faults that slipped through the cracks.

The outline was simple, VAR would intervene to check goals, penalty decisions, direct red cards and mistaken identity. Yet, problems soon arose when it came to interpreting clear and obvious errors, varying camera angles, as well as subjective decisions like whether handball was deliberate or not.

The Rise of VAR-Induced Frustration

According to the Premier League, the average VAR delay lasted 64 seconds in the 2023/24 season, longer than the 40-second average in the 2022/23 campaign. Since VAR’s introduction, the only thing it has evidently done is cause discomfort amongst fans. Whilst most will admit that it irons out numerous errors, lengthy reviews have broken up the momentum of the game and diminished the spontaneity of goal celebrations.

It also comes as a surprise that there is still no clear communication between officials and fans, unlike sports like Rugby and American Football, the Premier League has been reluctant to implement a system where the referee audibly explains the decision to the stadium, leading to even more speculation and chaos. Even teams of referees and assistants have seen themselves disagree with each other or unanimously get a decision wrong.

There is also the argument that referees might become over-reliant on VAR if they depend on it too much. This could undermine their on-field authority and decision-making, which is already being questioned by supporters.

VAR vs Human Error: What has the Bigger Impact?

Whilst they are often paired together, there are differences between VAR and human error. Human error is often immediate and sometimes blatantly obvious, but is a lot more likely to be accepted as part of the unpredictable nature of live sport. On the other hand, VAR mistakes often cause more frustration because technology leaves no room for error.

There were a total of 110 overturns in the 2023/24 season, leading to 33 goals given, 50 disallowed. The most common ruling out was for offside, making up 64% of all disallowed goals via VAR. The offside rule, like the handball rule, seems to change often, and we see near identical offsides both ruled out and given. VAR has opened up this world of criticism more and increased the amount of time fans spend fixated on still images, lines and slowed-down replays…

Finding the Balance and Way Forward

At the end of the day, VAR is controlled by humans, unless a governing body introduces a system which is fully automated and run by technology, there will always be mistakes made by those operating it. Choosing to go down the AI path could be an option in the future, if officials continue to make mistakes, replacing them completely with technology might eliminate this. However, this would only strengthen the grip that fine detail has on the game, and could lead to an increased obsession surrounding decisions that are made by a matter of inches…