The story of the Confederations Cup are the ceaseless tribulations of the Video Assistant Referee. VAR is also an acronym in finance, standing for Value at Risk, and after the latest farcical deployment of the video system, football's technological revolution is at risk as it proves to have little value.
The latest nadir for the system came in today's clash between Cameroon and Germany. Emre Can had the studs of Ernest Mabouka rake down his knee, which was then checked by the referee. After the game, Can tole his manager that he didn't believe it was a red card: "‘Emre Can said he had been touched but he didn’t have the impression of a foul".
Whatever about that, what followed was extraordinary: the referee somehow managed to get the identity of the player wrong, instead sending off Sebastien Siani.
Watch it below:
An Ernest error, in more ways than one.]
Germany ultimately won, 3-1, and advance to the semi-finals.
