In a move that will have implications for world football moving forward, Arsene Wenger has revealed that the Qatar World Cup next year is likely to have automated offside calls.
Arsene Wenger, FIFA’s Chief of Global Football Development, has said that offside calls will likely be automated at next year’s World Cup in Qatar, with the former Arsenal boss stating that VAR calls are currently taking too long.
“We must continue to progress in the speed of decision-making, particularly in terms of offside,’ he said, via Goal.
“In 2022 at the World Cup, we’ll be much better able to make very quick offside decisions. And it will stop the game less because that is what the VAR can be faulted with. There is a real emotional lift, but after that you have to know if you want fair decisions or not.
“There is a good chance that the offside will be automated at the 2022 World Cup. I am bound to secrecy, but this will be the next of the big developments in refereeing.”
The Premier League have made a dog’s dinner of the implementation of VAR, seeming at times to be using it as badly as possibly on purpose, like a spoilt toddler refusing to share his toys. If VAR makes things worse, their logic seemed to go, then people will appreciate us more.
In the end, all PGMOL achieved was to annoy everyone and make themselves a laughing a stock on the world football stage as they highlighted that they couldn’t even watch TV without making a mess of it.
Arsene Wenger was often mocked for many of his ideas when he was at Arsenal, something that hasn’t really changed since he started trying to drag the game into the 21st century.
In the end, however, everyone usually comes around to his way of thinking.