VAR has been introduced to the Premier League for the first time this season. VAR stands for Video Assistant Referee. Although you probably have been used to video reviews, football and reviews are a bit different.

For starters, VAR is used to review any obvious mistakes from referees on the infringements of fouls leading to goals, offsides leading to goals, handballs, and red card offenses. On top of that, most sports have challenges. Football does not. This makes it up to the league referees which only fuels the conspiracies that the Premier League is a cynically corrupt league. Throughout the first few months of VAR in the league, there were definitely pain points with beautiful goals being controversially ruled out.

All in all, VAR was brought in to make the right calls, but in the end, it has only divided people’s opinions on the topic of VAR and football. In its sophomore season, there will need to be drastic changes to the process of VAR in order for it to be labeled a success in modern football.

Hi All- going forward, I will be adding information that may help you better understand the game of football. Hopefully, you will be able to take a few things away in order to make the game easier to watch.

For the first blog in this thread of rules/ information, the handball law will be covered. Handball when knowing nothing about it seems easy, but it is quite complex in the end. The rule states it as a foul and the play is blown dead by the whistle of the ref. How do you commit this offense? By using any part of your hand or forearm, up to your shoulder, to touch the ball or change the direction of the ball. With that being said, there are different severities of the handball foul. It can be perceived as accidental, resulting in a common foul, or it can be perceived as a yellow card offense depending on the deliberate nature of the handball. Lastly, it can be deemed a red card offense resulting in you getting ejected from the game and your team playing with 10 players instead of 11. This is the most extreme offense and is relatively rare. This typically happens when you are denying a clear goal-scoring opportunity resulting in the red card.

Lastly, the handball rule has changed drastically this year by the incorporation of VAR and an update to the law. The update states that no goal can be scored as a result of a handball whether accidental or deliberate. This has created issues within the game as it is very controversial when a defender touches it with his hand and is deemed accidental meanwhile, and accidental touch by an attacker rules out a goal no matter what.

This rule is ever-changing and will be reviewed once again in the summer by FIFA and will most likely change and clear up the confusion between players, referees, and fans.