What is VAR in soccer?
Off-field officials review the big calls on replay — goals, penalties, red cards. It gets more decisions right, at the cost of a few minutes of everyone standing around confused.
Explain further
VAR — Video Assistant Referee — is a team of officials in a video room watching the match on replay. They do not re-referee everything; they only step in for four match-changing situations: goals (was there a foul or offside in the buildup?), penalty decisions, straight red cards, and mistaken identity (booking the wrong player). For everything else, the on-field referee's call stands.
Here is how a review works: the video team spots a possible error and recommends a look. The referee either accepts it or jogs to a pitchside monitor to watch it themselves — that is the 'on-field review', complete with the referee drawing a TV-screen rectangle in the air. Then they make the final call. The video officials advise; the referee on the grass still decides.
It is controversial for a reason. VAR gets more big calls correct, but it kills the instant explosion of a goal — you celebrate, then wait while someone checks a frozen frame for a toenail offside. Fans trade a few minutes of confusion for fewer outright robberies. Whether that is worth it is the argument that never ends.