Op-Ed: Iffy Red Card Shows It's Time to Ditch Slo-Mo

The controversial red card issued to Folarin Balogun of the US is proof that FIFA has to end its practice of using slow-motion replays to decide such penalties, writes Adam Crafton at the Athletic. Yes, Balogun's foot came down on the ankle of his Bosnian opponent when the two collided in their World Cup match, as seen when the moment is examined with a Zapruder-like analysis. In that sense, the ref's call is "understandable," writes Crafton. "Yet to most observers and many who have played the game, at any level at all, this was a miscarriage of justice."

The reason is that slow-motion replays used with soccer's Video Assistant Referee, or VAR, distort things, he argues. Soccer isn't played in slow-motion, quite the opposite. "Its largely subjective rulebook was designed to be implemented via the estimation of well-placed on-field officials, attuned to the pace of a match, rather than to be accounted for in a studio at the speed of a tortoise from an unlimited number of camera angles." In short, it's time to put these replays to rest. Read the full piece, in which Crafton also notes that slow motion is supposed to be used to confirm factual points like contact, not to assess how "intense" a foul looks—something he believes VAR ignored here.