The effects of the Video Assistant Referee system (VAR) on the playing time, technical-tactical and physical performance in elite soccer

ABSTRACT

The main purpose of the present study was to assess if the intervention of the Video Assistant Referee (VAR) had effects in the playing time and in the technical-tactical and physical performances of the teams in the Spanish LaLiga during 2018-19 season. A total of 375 matches were grouped according the number of VAR interventions: none (VAR0), one (VAR1) and two or three (VAR2). The variables recorded were: total (TPT) and effective (EPT) playing time, passes, dribbles, crosses, shots, goals, corners, fouls, width, length, height, distance from the goalkeeper to their defence, and total (TD) and above 21 km/h distance covered. The results were: I) there was a slight increase in the TPT in VAR2 compared to VAR1 and VAR0 (99.1 vs. 96.0 vs. 95.1, respectively); II) there was a decrease in the EPT between VAR0 and VAR1 (52.5 vs. 51.5); III) there was an increase in the number of goals (1.2 vs. 1.5 vs. 1.7, in VAR0, VAR1 and VAR2); and, IV) there was a slight decrease in the TD (108,916 vs. 107,916 vs. 106,977, in VAR0, VAR1 and VAR2). In conclusion, the findings of the study suggest that the VAR hardly changes the game in elite soccer.

KEYWORDS:

• Team sport
• match analysis
• notational analysis
• time-motion analysis
• video-replay technology

Acknowledgments

The authors would like to express sincere gratitude to the Referees’ Technical Committee of the Royal Spanish Football Federation for providing them the information about the matches where the Video Assistant Referee (VAR) intervened in the Spanish LaLiga during 2018-2019 season.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Ethical approval

The data have been treated in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki, being granted the clubs’ consent to access the data and having received permission from the Ethics Committee on Humans (CEISH) of the University of the Basque Country (UPV/EHU).

Additional information

Funding

This study was supported by the Spanish government subproject Mixed method approach on performance analysis (in training and competition) in elite and academy sport [PGC2018-098742-B-C33] (2019-2021) [Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades (MCIU), la Agencia Estatal de Investigación (AEI) y el Fondo Europeo de Desarrollo Regional (FEDER)], that is part of the coordinated project New approach of research in physical activity and sport from mixed methods perspective (NARPAS_MM) [SPGC201800X098742CV0].