VAR dominates the football discourse most weeks and its use in the FA Cup for the 2024/25 campaign has attracted a lot of attention as the third round matches are played.
The technology has been part of the FA Cup process since 2017/18 but has been kicked out of the third round for the current campaign, renewing the debate over VAR in England’s oldest cup competition.
But why has VAR been abolished in the third round of the? FA Cup?
The FA has made amendments to its implementation of VAR in this year’s competition, with the technology now only used from the fifth round onwards.
VAR was previously used in the third and fourth rounds of the competition, but was only used in Premier Leagueand reasons On the one hand, it made sense as the top-tier stadiums already had the technology in place, but it created an imbalance as different matches within the same round of the competition ended up having different rules.
From 2024/25, VAR will be widely used in the fifth round regardless of venue, creating a fairer ecosystem within the competition.
In a statement on its decision, the FA said: “It has been agreed that VAR will be used for all matches from the fifth round of the competition up to the final at Wembley Stadium, and will not be in operation for the third and fourth Rounds.
“VAR has previously only been used in the Emirates FA Cup for matches at Wembley Stadium and Premier League grounds due to the infrastructure, manpower and costs required to to its operation.
“This decision ensures that there is a consistent refereeing approach for all clubs involved in the same phase of the competition.”
VAR is not capable of intervening in all scenarios, basically because there is a reluctance for matches to be, for all intents and purposes, re-refereeed. West Ham United wouldn’t have felt the benefit of VAR in their defeat a Aston Villa on Friday night, for example, because referee Tim Robinson wrongly awarding a corner to the Villans does not fall into the four permitted categories.
The VAR can intervene in a match in the following situations, with the competence to try to prevent the on-field referee from making a clear and obvious error.
The field umpire makes the initial call, along with his two assistants who run the sideline (if necessary). The VAR will then intervene if he determines a foul has been committed, but does not have the final say in the matter. The field umpire will be sent to a field-side monitor to review the evidence and determine whether or not an error has been committed.
VAR can also be used to validate whether an on-field referee was right to let a game continue.
