World Cup VAR controversies show why human referees should decide where potential fouls begin

The Conversation reports on two contested Video Assistant Referee decisions at the twenty twenty-six World Cup that reveal a recurring problem: officials must make subjective calls about where a controversial moment begins and how far its effects extend. In one match, referees canceled an Egyptian goal after finding a foul from seventeen seconds and eighty meters earlier in the same attack. In another, England kept a goal after ruling that a Norwegian player's push — which happened before the corner kick was even back in play — didn't count as part of the goal-scoring action. The underlying challenge is that video replay captures what happened, but not why it matters in context. Researchers studying VAR's ethics propose a fix: let human referees judge contact at normal speed rather than slow motion, require them to clearly explain which earlier events remain relevant to a goal decision, and have FIFA publish post-match notes on consequential reviews. The idea: technology should support human judgment, not replace it.

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