New iPhone Tech Set to Replace VAR in English Premier League Football

There’s no doubt about the fact the English Premier League is one of the most spectated sporting events in the world, with NBC Universal breaking viewership records in the 2023-2024 season with an average of 546,000 viewers per match.

The popularity of the Premier League extends far beyond the English borders, with an incredible 1.87 people following the league from all around the world.

However, as much as spectators love the sport and everything PL football brings, it’s unavoidable that there will be a few points of contention among fans, players and coaches alike, and one of the main issues up for debate is the use of video assistant referee (VAR) technology.

 

What Is VAR?

 

VAR technology has been around for a while, having been used in sports like rugby, cricket and tennis, but it wasn’t until the 2017-2018 season that the tech was introduced on a major international scale in the world of football.

The basic concept behind VAR is the fact that it gives referees and umpires the ability to go back and view available video footage to double-check decisions if they’re unsure or if players contest calls made on the field.

The motivation behind the introduction of VAR in sport was to decrease the number of errors made by referees. This was to cover cases in which acceptable, human errors had been made if the umpire missed an incident or wasn’t able to see it from the right angle. It was also intended to minimise discussions pertaining to potential biases of referees and umpires, eliminating the possibility of unfair match regulation.

However, despite the seemingly good intentions behind the innovative technology, the use of VAR in football hasn’t been widely accepted, and this comes down to a few different factors.

 

How Does VAR in Football Work?

 

As soon as VAR was introduced to the beautiful game, its application was set to be different from other sports.

In tennis, rugby, hockey and other games that used VAR in the early days, the technology was used as a sort of “back-up” refereeing system that could be reviewed upon request. That is, if referees and umpires were unsure of something, they were able to request a review of the footage.

Similarly, if players felt that the wrong decision had been made, they were able to request that the decision go to the VAR system for review.

Of course, the details regarding exactly what the rules were regarding VAR, player referrals and more differed from one sport to the next and the rules have changed over time, but essentially, requests for review were required before anybody other than the on-field on-court umpire or referee contributed to the management of the game or match in question.

That’s where the use of VAR in football has differed. Rather than using it as a referral system, the technology has become a tool for umpires and referees to use throughout matches.

Play is constantly monitored and every single one of the ref’s decisions is scrutinised throughout the match. If the VAR team deems any decisions to be incorrect, the referee will be alerted immediately. This increased scrutiny has not only changed how matches are officiated but has also had a significant impact on football betting markets.

 

 

Why Has the Use of VAR in Football Been Controversial? 

 

There are a few main reasons fans, spectators and some players have grown to vocally dislike the VAR system in football.

Many argue that it slows down the game and ruins the pace of matches. By constantly having additional match officials making and changing decisions, football matches aren’t able to flow as they used to, now full of constant stopping and starting which is unpleasant for both players and spectators alike.

A major part of this is not only that games are slowed down but that many calls are still inaccurate. This can be due to the time pressure put on officials to review footage and make quick calls as well as various other issues with human processing and limited technology.

Another opinion in the football community is that while the intention behind VAR was to improve decisions made in matches by eliminating the potential for bad decision-making, it’s gone too far. Many believe that the use of VAR in this way has led to an “over-sanitisation” of the game, trying to perfect a sport that was once beautiful due, in part, to its imperfections.

Well, the English Premier League has announced that in the next season, old-school VAR will be abandoned and replaced with new technology that uses iPhones to capture footage and make more accurate decisions.

While the supposed “over-sanitisation” of the sport certainly won’t be solved by adding a more advanced solution, this incoming iPhone technology does offer the potential to improve the accuracy of decision making, remove human error and prevent games from being slowed down unnecessarily.

 

How iPhone Technology is Expected to Replace VAR

 

The Premier League plans on rolling out this new technology in the 2024-2025 season. Known within the industry as “Dragon”, this VAR alternative makes use of dozens of iPhones cameras to capture high frame rate video footage of matches from multiple different angles.

In addition to the many different angles of camera footage it’s able to capture, Dragon utilises custom machine intelligence software that allows all the smartphones to work together in processing the footage from different cameras. This process is known as “object semantic mesh”.

According to a report by Genius, Dragon will make use of a minimum of 28 iPhones at Premier League matches, all of which will be housed in waterproof casings while plugged into power sources and being kept cool by means of cooling fans.

This system will allow for between 7,000 and 10,000 points on each player to be tracked simultaneously, resulting in a level of accuracy that has never before been seen.

Furthermore, with ultra-high frame rates, footage will be able to be slowed down far more effectively than in the past, avoiding instances of occlusion that’ll prevent viewers and officials from being able to see vital moments of play. Essentially, this technology will reduce the gaps between frames by 75%.

The AI aspect of Dragon is potentially its most incredible and exciting component, offering the potential to not only capture events but actually contextualise them and in some cases, learn from them, meaning that the technology will just get better and better the more it’s used.

At the end of the day, while it doesn’t solve all the problems of the past, this new iPhone-powered technology offers an alternative to the current VAR system that, by means of advanced technology, has the potential to be significantly more accurate.

So, will it work, and will the fans and players endorse the new iPhone era of video assistant referee technology?

It’s unlikely that everybody will be onboard since many still live in the hope of returning to the days of a single on-field referee. But for now, we’ll just have to wait and see how effective the technology is and what effect it has on the beautiful game and the Premier League as a whole.