VAR at the World Cup has not been without its controversies.
Think of the red card for South Africa’s Themba Zwane for violent conduct in the opening game.
Or the referee rejecting a penalty review after France’s Kylian Mbappe appeared to be tripped by Senegal’s Sadio Mane.
But for the most part, there have not been too many talking points.
It is often the way at major tournaments, as players take fewer risks compared to a 38-game league season.
On average, there is one key match incident (red card, penalty claim etc) in a World Cup fixture. In the Premier League, it is three. That instantly creates the scope for more controversy at league level.
We should expect refereeing to be the gold standard at the World Cup, too.
After all, Fifa scoured the globe to select the creme de la creme, the 51 top referees and 30 best video match officials.
Whisper it, but Pierluigi Collina, Fifa’s head of referees, wants his officials to approach the tournament a bit like a Premier League game.
Collina’s ethos is that football is a contact sport, and not all contact is a foul. He wants to see free-flowing games at a higher tempo.
You could pick that wording right out of the Premier League handbook.
The stats back this up, too. Referees are blowing for far fewer fouls.
The 2018 World Cup saw 27 fouls per game, while in Qatar four years ago it was 25.
For this World Cup it is down to 21.7. In the Premier League last season it was 21.6.
Collina has also reduced the number of cautions per game, with 2.4 well below any other competition or recent World Cup.
If you change the way a game is being refereed, you must adapt video review too.
