1st Edition

The Use of Video Technologies in Refereeing Football and Other Sports

    392 Pages 8 B/W Illustrations
    by Routledge

    392 Pages 8 B/W Illustrations
    by Routledge

    For a long time, various different lobbying sectors have claimed that the use of video technology is an effective aid in decision-making. Now the IFAB has taken a historic step in the approval of experiments on the use of video to provide support to football refereeing.



    The Use of Video Technologies in Refereeing Football and Other Sports analyses the capacity of audio-visual technology from different perspectives to help understand the best implementation of the Video Assistant Referee (VAR) system in football and, more generally, in other sports. This book addresses in-depth interdisciplinary viewpoints on the need and the opportunity of the implementation procedures regarding how to use it, considering that it could lead to very important changes.



    The book goes on to examine various approaches to the most interesting topics for players, amateurs, coaches, referees and referees coaches. Offering viewpoints from both academics and professionals, this new volume addresses the VAR issue in a multidisciplinary way, analysing the implications of video replay application in football from the perspective of players, coaches, television professionals, referees, amateurs, sports lawyers, media and educators.

    Part 1: The Need for Video Assisted in Football

    1. Between Scepticism and the longed-awaited quest for "Football Justice"

    Juan Antonio Simón

    2. The Contribution of VARs to Fairness in Sport

    Juan De Dios Crespo

    Part 2: Video Broadcasting Limitations

    3. Is it the same for the TV Screen and for the VAR? Planning the Use of Cameras and Replays to Solve the Controversy

    Anto J. Benítez

    4. The Interaction Between Audio and the Video Assistant Referee in Football

    Manuel Sánchez Cid and Alberto Luis García-García

    5. Replays in Football: A Technical Resource that Serves as a Narrative and Post-Refereeing System

    Alberto L. García-García and Manuel Sánchez Cid

    Part 3: Video Assisted Officiating in Other Sports

    6. Instant Replay in The Spanish Basketball League: ACB

    Ángel M. López

    7. Instant Replay System in the National Basketball Association

    Jacob K. Tingle

    8. Video Technology for refereeing in other sports: Tennis and Rugby

    Anto J. Benítez, Esteban Stepanian, and Ángel M. López

    9. Instant Replay in the National Football League

    Jacob K. Tingle and Manuel Armenteros

    Part 4: Experiments with Video Assistant Referees

    10. The Video Assistant Referee (VAR) Protocol

    Carlos Bacigalupe

    11. VAR Experiments in International Matches

    Manuel Armenteros

    12. VAR experiments in the Bundesliga

    Otto Kolbinger

    13. VAR experiments in the Italian SERIE A League

    Juan Antonio Simón

    14. VAR in the Major League Soccer (MLS)

    Clinton Warren

    15. How Twitter has portrayed the VAR

    Raquel Gallego

    Part 5: New Challenges in the Refereeing Performance

    16. Educating International Football Referees: The importance of Uniformity

    Manuel Armenteros and Tom Webb

    17. Didactic Teaching Strategies for the VAR. An Approach to Gamification and 21st-century Skills

    Marta Fernández, Miguel Ángel Betancor, and Manuel Armenteros

    18. Psychological response of the referee to the introduction of VAR

    Ricardo de la Vega and Juan Pedro Fuentes

    Biography

    Manuel Armenteros is a visiting professor at the Carlos III University of Madrid. For over 10 years, he coordinated the training project between the FIFA Refereeing Department and the Carlos III University, Madrid, designing and implementing new technologies for referees and technical instructors. He is also a technology consultant and regularly collaborates with FIFA, UEFA, AFC and IFAB on a variety of projects.





    Anto J. Benítez holds a degree in Information Science and a PhD in Audiovisual Communication from the Complutense University of Madrid. His thesis was titled “Espectáculo futbolístico y comunicación televisiva”. Main lines of his research have to do with sports and media, new technologies of audio-visual production and its application in education. He is the author of the sole original volume in Spanish about producing and directing sports for television. He has been a television director for more than 15 years, some of which he was in charge of sports and broadcasting in Telemadrid. Thanks to that, he has planned and directed a huge number of sports events, especially in La Liga and La Liga 2. As an athlete, he competed at the highest level for 17 years in different rugby teams in Spanish Leagues.



    Miguel Ángel Betancor is a professor of Theory and History of Education at the University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria. He received his PhD in Psychopedagogy from the University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria in 1988. He is the director of the Center for Studies on Sports Arbitration at the University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria. He was also the coordinator of the online training project between FIFA and FIBA Europe and the University Las Palmas de Gran Canaria from 2000 to 2010, and the head of operations at FIBA Europe, where he worked on the design of the digital basketball record. He also introduced technology in referee training, providing an online platform to referees and instructions from 51 countries. Nowadays, he is the head of the European project “Erasmus PLUS SPORT”, a new model of sociohealthy volunteering. He is also the head of the regional project “eSport Talent Canarias”, which is aimed at the development of electronic sports and its recognition in the Sports Law and Gamification Life.