What Can The Women’s Game Learn From VAR?

A UCFB student argues that the women’s game should keep the video assistant referee out. Having debated it with herself – if VAR is being written into the laws of the men’s game, why not here – Alicia Pryzsieniak lands on keep it, we don’t want it. She quotes Casey Stoney’s view that women’s football can spend its money on far better things and will never be resourced for it, and points to the 2019 World Cup, where VAR’s first outing in the women’s game put goalkeepers in the firing line: Chiamaka Nnadozie, Sydney Schneider and Lee Alexander were all penalised for stepping off the line at penalties, forcing retakes. Waiting two minutes to learn whether a ball grazed a fingernail, she argues, costs the game the celebration. She agrees with Stoney on goal-line technology.