so sick of the use of VAR in the premiership!! it’s beginning to look like goddamned American football, where the game gets stopped every minute because of a stupid machine!
I once got so worked up about this possibility, way back, in 2010, that I actually wrote about it—to the NYT. I stand by it!
#goddamnfuckthisVAR
To the Sports Editor:
Those who urge FIFA to use goal-line technology presuppose this argument: technology will provide an absolute truth that referees’ perceptions lack. But FIFA’s reliance on humans to solve existential moments of doubt is correct.
Soccer’s power lies in its poetic narrative—the indeterminacy of each second of the game presents us with something primal: that our lives are subject to the limitations of human perception. Anguish and doubt are endemic to the current rules
We may have fewer dubious decisions if FIFA appropriates goal-line technology. But soccer will lose something more beguiling and lasting: its correct perspective that we will never be able to eliminate indeterminacy.
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Gina Apostol, Dobbs Ferry, N.Y.
