Who was the better defense? Argentina’s goalie, Or VAR?
Their goalie put in work no doubt, but VAR was there to back him up. They got that goal during main time, but thanks to VAR (Video Assistant Referee) they determined the scoring player was off sides by 1” (not an exaggeration).
Back during the Cold War, the Stasi and KGB had a strategy. You observe everything and log everything.
When someone you like breaks the rules, you see it, and you ignore it. When someone you don’t like breaks the rules, you see it and you bring the hammer down.
There is no person and no sporting event that doesn’t ever break a rule. But if you start selectively using those rules to punish one side and ignore the other, then you’re just discriminating with cameras. You’re not judging fairly anymore.
Like I said, I don’t think they’re being used perfectly, no. And I think you’re right that they can indeed be used in a negative/unfair way. But I do still believe that having the multi-cam option is a good thing for a professional sporting event. I don’t know the exact rules on how they’re used in FIFA (so feel free to call me out here), but if I had to guess, I think it’s similar to the use of the review box in American Football: the refs on the field make a call, if it’s disputed or if they need more info then they go to the cameras, but ultimately the human beings on the field have the final say. Obviously I didn’t watch every World Cup match, but I don’t recall ever seeing a moment where the VAR stopped play and made a call on its own that every ref on the field had missed. Sports commentators might have seen/talked about something like that, saying that the refs SHOULD have picked up on something, but at the end of the day it’s still humans making the initial calls and the cameras are just there to provide evidence.