Chelsea vs West Ham - Inappropriate VAR Use?

[Peter Grove]

A similar incident (ie use outside of protocol) happened in the women’s World Cup final in 2023. Ball goes out, AR and ref have no idea whether it’s a corner or goal kick, go one way and VAR pipes up with “caution, caution, caution”. Clearly telling them they got it wrong without explicitly doing so. I’d guess it’s just a thing that VARs do, whether allowed or not. I personally don’t see the issue, and I think the protocol should be rewritten to allow this as it is beneficial to the on field tVRm.

I think some of this is arguably covered under the provisions of Law 6.

This law states that the VAR and AVAR, "assist the referee in controlling the match in accordance with the Laws of the Game and the VAR protocol."

So that indicates they have a general duty to assist, along with specific duties under the VAR protocol.

However I don't think we should give VAR/AVAR carte blanche to just opine on any and all decisions.

For instance, it's one thing when it comes to a factual matter that they have spotted and the others haven't, and which could lead to a technical error such as a team being allowed to continue with 12 players on the field.

Whereas I'm not so sure I like the idea of the VAR getting involved in what are judgment calls for the on field officials which fall outside the VAR protocol, such as whether it's a goal kick or a corner kick.