When it comes to the effectiveness of VAR, it pays to look at how it works with which VAR official. For instance, the games in which Danny Makalele (NED) or Felix Zwayer (GER) have been the officials, the calls and interventions have been bang on. But officials like Clement Turpin (FRA) seem to be handcuffed by the role and hardly ever intervene when the referee in the middle misses a clear and obvious call. What I would say about the introduction of VAR is that FIFA has not yet understood the particular skills needed for functioning as a VAR. They have mistakenly acted on the assumption that a FIFA qualified referee will always be good at VAR and that is clearly and obviously not the case. They could learn a thing or too from rugby on this count where the TMO is a specialist position for which one has to be trained and qualified, and they are consequently few in number.
Having said that, VAR has, in the main, worked very well, given the lack of adequate preparation. The biggest errors of judgment have been made by on-the-field officials.
