Six observations from the 2018 World Cup

#3 VAR is a welcome addition to our beautiful game

With VAR having been test run by FIFA at the Confederations Cup last year and given a vote of confidence for use at this year's World Cup, a lot of fans were sceptical about it owing to the numerous controversies it courted in leagues where it was used last season.

However, what cannot be denied is that VAR helped correct a lot of errors which would otherwise have been unnoticed by the referee.

All final decisions ultimately rest with the match referee, although, VAR assists him/her where they feel a wrong decision has been made in any of the following incidents viz;

1) Awarding/cancellation of a goal

2) Penalty incidents

3) Mistaken identity

4) Red card decisions

A record total of 24 penalties were awarded in the World Cup with 11 of those coming after VAR review as defenders were punished for fouls they would have otherwise gotten away with were VAR not in use.

VAR made a lot of right calls during the World Cup, particularly in the group stages which ultimately went a long way in deciding the fate of the qualified teams and those that were eliminated.

Germany might well have qualified from their group had the referee's original decision for offside against Young-Gwon Kim's 90th-minute goal in their final group match stood and the Europeans went on to score an injury-time winner as they did against Sweden in their penultimate game.

VAR helped overturn the decision which turned out to be the right call leading to Germany's elimination.

Earlier, on matchday 1 in group F, VAR also came into play as Victor Claessen was fouled in the box against Korea but referee Victor Aguillar waved play on, only to reverse his decision after consultations with VAR. The resultant spot-kick was buried and ensured 3 points for Sweden, which aided in their qualification for the next round.

VAR also made the correct decision in overruling a penalty awarded to Neymar in Brazil's clash with Costa Rica as the PSG man had dived.

Iran's equalizer against Spain was also rightly chalked off for offside, failing which Iran might have gotten a point and the dynamics of qualification in group B would have been changed.

On the last day of the World Cup group stage, Senegal became the first ever country to be eliminated from the World Cup due to the fair play tiebreaker after they had finished level with Japan through the first four tiebreakers but things might have been different were it not for VAR.

Heading into their final group match in the second spot and needing just a draw against Colombia to go through, the Teranga Lions seemed to have been handed a lifeline when Sadio Mane was adjudged to have been felled in the box by Davidson Sanchez with the referee pointing to the spot.

On review with VAR, however, the decision was overturned and Colombia went on to squeeze a 1-0 victory and qualify for the next round at the expense of Senegal which might not have been but for the interference of VAR.

However, despite all these.......