The Use of Video Technologies in Refereeing Football and Other Sports

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.

Part 1: The Need for Video Assisted in Football



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



2. The Contribution of VARs to Fairness in Sport



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



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



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



Part 3: Video Assisted Officiating in Other Sports



6. Instant Replays in The Spanish Basketball League: ACB



7. Instant Replay System in the National Basketball Association



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



9. Instant Replay in the National Football League



Part 4: Experiments with Video Assistant Referees



10. The Video Assistant Referee (VAR) Protocol



11. VAR Experiments in International Matches



12. VAR experiments in the Bundesliga



13. VAR experiments in the Italian SERIE A League



14. VAR in the Major League Soccer (MLS)



15. How Twitter has portrayed the VAR



Part 5: New Challenges in the Refereeing Performance



16. Educating International Football Referees: The importance of Uniformity



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



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