I haven't had the chance to watch a full game so far in the world cup (only highlights), but that's good to hear it's being used well for it's first time. There will definelty be some more controversial calls (especially leading to the knockout stage) but I'm just happy they finally decided to go in this direction.
Hopefully in the future there's better ground rules on how plays can be challenged. I know in American football they have more specific rules on whether or not a play can be challenged, and if a coach calls for a play to be challenged when they aren't allowed to they loose yardage. Perhaps players pressuring the ref into VAR should have some consequence, and leave the decision making to multiple refs on the field if they are split in a decision?
Yeah other sports have already figured out how to use it. In Tennis each player gets 3 challenge calls per set to ask for the hawk eye system to review the in/out call, and if you call it correctly you keep your challenge, and lose it if you didn't.
And you're right, football is quite late with implementing it. Many people have been asking to implement it for years now but there's a lot of resistance. A lot of people are even unhappy with it in this tournament which I find dumb.
It's been tried in other tournaments before this world cup and it's been mostly a failure so far, but I think it's been very good in this tournament.
If I'm not mistaken the rules now are VAR can be consulted in a case of a red card, penalty, and an offside call/miscall leading to a goal. The referee gets to decide on his own whether or not to consult VAR, so the team/coach doesn't have the right to request a challenge. This is causing too much protest on the field and players mobbing and pressuring the ref to consult VAR on almost anything they don't like, which sucks.
My heart
