Snicko, chips in the ball and red cards from the sky: is technology ruining this World Cup?

[StayReadyKev91]

After last night I think we need a proper thread on this. Croatia had a 113th minute equaliser ruled out because a sensor in the ball detected a touch no human being saw, four separate goals were chalked off for offside in that one match, and Dalic came out afterwards saying VAR kills the emotion of the game. Earlier in the week Balogun got a red card for the USMNT after the referee was sent to the monitor for something he had originally waved on, so he now misses the Belgium tie

The defence of all this is obvious, the calls are accurate. The Matanovic touch was real, the offsides were real, and if you want fair outcomes you have to accept the machinery that produces them. Twenty years ago Croatia's goal stands, Portugal go out, and we spend a decade arguing about an injustice instead

My problem is not accuracy, it is proportion. Offside was written to stop goal hanging, not to erase goals because a striker's boot brushed a cross by a few millimetres in the build up. When the technology can detect infractions the game was never designed to punish, maybe the laws need rewriting to match the tech rather than the other way round

There is also the human cost. Modric's last ever World Cup moment was standing around for three minutes waiting for a screen, and fans in the stadium celebrated a goal that officially never happened. Where do you all stand, full automation, rip it all out, or something in between like a daylight threshold for offside?

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[Kieran88]

Full automation for me. The alternative is trusting a linesman's naked eye at full sprint and we all know how that went for decades

[Gareth5]

Accuracy without proportion is just pedantry with a budget. The Gvardiol goal being disallowed made the sport worse last night and no spreadsheet changes that

[Ronaldo]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OP6o5CgnI7I

[Ryan65]

The daylight rule solves 90 percent of this. If any part of the attacker is level or behind, play on. Simple, and marginal calls disappear overnight

[GatewayDrifter]

Daylight just moves the margin, it does not remove it. You would still have millimetre decisions, just at a different line on the pitch

[CrimsonFury]

The Balogun one bothered me more than the Croatia goal honestly. Refs waving play on then reversing to a red after a slow motion replay makes every tackle look like assault

[Crossing]

Slow motion genuinely distorts intent. There is research on this, viewers judge the same challenge as more violent when they see it slowed down

[Bright Hermit]

Am I the only one who thinks Dalic is just a sore loser? Nobody complains about VAR when it goes their way

[RVD17]

He might be a sore loser and also right. Those are not mutually exclusive

[BookerT]

The chip in the ball was brought in for handball and goal line stuff. Using it to build offside chains three touches back feels like mission creep

[IdleWarden]

Honest question for the rip it out crowd, would you really accept a repeat of Lampard 2010 or the Maradona handball in exchange for the vibes? Because that is the actual trade

[KyleOReilly05]

I'm not sure if I'm happy with snicko or not