The Eagle-Eye of Sports

Video Assistant referee (VAR) was introduced to ease the pressure on match officials and take human errors out of the equations when clear and obvious errors have occurred.

The technology has stolen news headlines for the right and wrong reasons since invented. It is yet to be globally accepted but it's already in use in some of the most coveted leagues in Europe.

It was first introduced back in the early 2010s, but the concept took years to gain traction. It was developed under the direction of the Royal Netherlands Football Association (KNVB).

Mock trials started in the 2012/13 season of Eredivisie (Netherland's top league).

The Royal Dutch football Association (KNVB) took a bold step in 2014 to petitioned the International Football Association Board (IFAB) to make changes to football regulations so that 'VAR' can be applied more extensively and after some deliberations IFAB finally approved trials in 2016.

The first live trial took place in July 2016 during a friendly match between FC Eindhoven and PSV, and the next trial came the following month on the other side of the Atlantic with a United Soccer League (USL ) match.

The system was used twice during a match between two MLS reserve sides, which the referee reviewed two fouls by consulting VAR before ultimately deciding to issued a yellow and a red card for the incidents.

Therefore, FIFA officially announced the big VAR news during the FIFA Council meeting held in Bogota on 16th March 2018.

As a result, the 2018 FIFA World Cup in Russia became the first competition to make used of the system in full, at all venues and matches, and the technology passed its ultimate test successfully at the World Cup.

VAR technology uses a patent of Sony's Hawk-Eye Innovations, the company benefits financially from this invention by charging licensing fees worth $2.2 million per season.

The company holds a 20-year patent and the system is been used in over 20 sports in more than 90 countries.

In 2018, French Survey stated that 86 percents of respondents were in favour of using VAR system during games, 13 percents were against the idea and just one percent did not have an answer.

The International football Association Board (IFAB) studied a total of 927 soccer games that took place internationally in 20 national authorities, and the results showed that 69.1 percents of the games studied did not need VAR replays.

Fascinating Stats about VAR

The cost of using VAR is $6.5 million for a single season.

About 5.5 percents of VAR matches required two or more reviews.

VAR penalty and goals checks account for 

57.4 percents of total VAR intervention.

The average VAR intervention time in a match is 55 seconds.

Man United have enjoyed more benefits of VAR tech, as it has awarded more penalties or goals than it had taken away during this season Premier League.

While Jurgen Klopp's side Liverpool had a huge numbers of penalties or goals taken away during the season. The scenario is also the same for teams like - Arsenal, Chelsea, Man City and Tottenham.

Presently, 37 leagues in the world are using VAR.

Finally the system has come to stay and we are hoping it will get better to improve sports at all levels.

Do you think VAR is ruining football excitements ?

Fabiyi Ridwan

Sports Writer and Analyst

Bavarians: The Undisputed Champion

Bayern Munich was founded in 1900 and have become Germany's most famous and successful football club. Almost all of Bayern's success has come since the 1960s.

They have won a total 74 trophies including a record 30 German Bundesliga,

19 DFB German Cups

8 German Super Cup titles

6 League Cup titles

5 UEFA Champions League trophies (1974, 1975,1976, 2001 and 2013).

UEFA Cup (1996)

Uefa cup winners cup (1967).

Intercontinental Cup (1976 and 2001)

FIFA Club World cup (2013)

UEFA Super Cup title (2013)

Stats in 2019/20 season

Bayern scored a record 100 goals (2.94 per game) and conceded 32 goals in 34 league games,  while it amassed 41 points apiece in both home and away games - a total of 82 points.

13 points gap separated Bayern and second place Borussia Dortmund at the conclusion of the season.

They won 13 games on the bounce, conceding 9 and scoring 42 times.

This is Bayern's 8 consecutive seasons league titles crown (2013, 2014, 2015, 2016,2l 2017, 2018, 2019 and 2020).

Bayern have now won 30 out of 57 titles since the foundation of the Bundeslïga in 1963 - more than all other clubs combined (28).

Robert Lewandowski had 34 goals in 31 league appearances to overtook Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang's (31 goals) single season foreign player scoring record, and thereby won his 5th Torjagerkanone awards - 2 behind Gerd Muller's record haul.

Thomas Muller's overall tally of 21 assists - is a new single season record which surpasses Kevin De Bruyne (20) for Wolfsburg in 2014/15 season.

Thomas Muller and David Alaba have both equal frank Ribery's 9 Bundesliga titles record.

Alphonso Davies' top speed of 36.51 km/h in the match against Werder Bremen is the fastest of any Bundesliga player since 2013/14.

Hans-Dieter Flick won 28 of his first 31 games which is the best start of any Bayern boss ever beating the previous record hels by Guardiola who won 22 out of 27 games.

The Bavarians will face Bayer Leverkusen in DFB Pokal Cup final this weekend.

Can Flick go ahead to emulate the legendary Jupp Heynckes who won the treble in 2012/13 season by winning the DFB Pokal Cup and Champions League this season ?

Fabiyi Ridwan

Sports Writer and Analyst 

Arsenal Ladies: The champion of all time

Arsenal women football club, was founded as Arsenal ladies in 1987 (33 years ago). It is an English professional women's football club affiliated with Arsenal.

They play in the Women's Super league, the topflight of English women's football (a league of 12 teams) and their home ground is located at Meadow park, Borehamwood with 4,502 capacity(1,700 seated).

Arsenal were limited to sparse and nomadic cup appearances for the first four years of their existence, and didn't turn professional until 2002 due to the overall decline interest in women's football in England.

Arsenal ladies have won more trophies than any other club in English women's football, and have won the most titles in each domestic competitions they have played in so far.

The Gunners ladies won their first major title in 1992, since then they have won 49 major titles and 58 trophies in total.

In the 2006/07 season, the club became the first in the history of women's football to achieved the continental European sextuple (winning 6 trophies in a season).

Hence, in English football history Arsenal ladies have won the most doubles, trebles and also completed a record seven unbeaten league seasons, setting a number of English records for longest topflight unbeaten run, for goals scored and points won.

Honours

1 UEFA Women's Champions League title (2006/07).

3-times FA Women's Super League champions (2011, 2012, and 2019).

12 FA Women's Premier League titles (1993, 1995, 1997, 2001, 2002 and 2004 - 2010).

5 FA WSL Continental Cup Winner titles (2011, 2012, 2013, 2015 and 2018).

14 FA Women's Cup Winners (1993, 1995, 1998, 1999, 2001, 2004, 2006 to 2009, 2011, 2013, 2014 and 2016).

10 FA Women's Premier League Cup Winners (1992, 1993, 1994, 1998 to 2001, 2005, 2007 and 2009).

5 FA Women's Community Shield Winners (2001/02, 2005/06, 2006/07 & 2007/08) including 1 shared with Charlton Athletic after a 1-1 draw in 1999/2000 

10 London County FA Women's Cup Winners titles (1995, 1996, 1997, 2000 - 2004 and 2007 - 2011).

Managers of the Team

Vic Akers

He was part of the formation of this club and also the first manager as he guided Arsenal to continued success until he retired in 2009 after 22 years at the helm.

Records 

Under Aker's stewardship, Arsenal claimed 11 league titles.

9 FA Women's cup titles.

10 FA Women's premier league cup titles.

5 FA Women's community shields.

Including seven consecutive league wins from 2003/04 to 2008/09 season.

Akers also led the team unbeaten run from October 2003 to March 2009, marking 108 games without defeat (51 league games wins in a row between November 2005 to April 2008).

Tony Gervaise

He is the successor of the legendary Akers, but in February 2010 after just 8-months in charge Gervaise resigned because of outside interference on his activities with the team, and he became the reserve team coach.

Laura Harvey

She was promoted from the reserve team to be the first team manager, which marked the club's first female coach in any capacity.

She won domestic double, FA Cup and Women's Super league and she left in the summer of 2013, after 3 seasons in charge.

Shelley Kerr

Kerr took over in 2013 summer and left in 2014, he had a successful stint with back-to-back FA Women's Cup win.

Pedro Losa 

Losa replaced Kerr in 2014 summer, with little success to show as a manager in debut season.

Losa only managed to win FA Women Super League Cup (2015) and FA women's cup (2016).

Joe Montemurro 

He joined in the summer of 2017 and he won 2018/19 Women's Super League title with a game to spare which marked their first title since 2011 

and marked the club's return to the UEFA Women's Champions League after 5 years absence.

Can these ladies dominant Europe in years to come?

Fabiyi Ridwan

Sports Writer and Analyst 

The Best Golfers of all-time

The game of golf originated in the 15th century  in Scotland, with the first major and the world's oldest tournament in existence being the British Open, which was first played in 1860 in Ayrshire, Scotland.

The most prestigious annual tournaments (Grand slams) in professional golf are; Masters Tournament, PGA Championship, U.S Open and The Open Championship also known as British Open.

USA Golfers are the most successful in major golf championships with a total of 273  grand slam titles since 1860.

Shortlists of the best golfers.

Jack Nicklaus

He is the greatest golfer to ever played the game. He has the most Major championship wins with 18 titles and second most ever PGA tour wins with 73.

The Golden bear won the masters on six different occasions, the last title came when he was 46 years old, which makes him the oldest to ever win the tournament.

He led the money list on 8 separate occasions and was named PGA player of the year five times.

Tiger Woods

He has won 14 majors which is second on the all-time list and also has 71 PGA tournaments wins, which is third on the list as well.

Recently, the 44-year old lost his marriage and caddy, which have slowdown his performance, and if he can pull himself together over the next few years, he can be the greatest golfer of all time.

Bobby Jones

He never made a penny from winning a tournament and he never turned professional in his career, yet he won 13 major championships and he is still the only golfer ever to  have won the grand slams - all  four major championships - in a single year and he retired at the age of 28.

Arnold Palmer 

The King is ranked fifth on the career PGA tour wins list with 62, which included 7 major championships .

He won PGA tour player of the year awards twice and led the money list four times.

He was also on the cover of sports illustrated in 1960, when he was awarded the title of Sportsman of the Year.

Gary Player 

The South African won nine majors in his lifetime, among it are 165 total tournament wins across various tours and  the African golf legend had only 25 PGA your wins.

Byron Nelson 

He is the sixth all time on the PGA tour with 52 wins, which included 5 titles in major championships.

In 1945, he won 11 consecutive tournaments with a total of 18 for the year.

With his comeback getting better, can Tiger woods become the most decorated golfer before he retires?

Fabiyi Ridwan

Sports Writer and Analyst

Never Walk Alone: Liverpool FC

Liverpool FC is based in Merseyside, the Reds was founded in 1892, and joined the football league in 1894.

The club's record appearance maker is Ian Callaghan (857 appearances between 1958 to 1978 ) while Ian Rush is the club's all time record goalscorer with 346 goals. 

Liverpool was one of the best teams in Europe with many trophies to prove it, but from 2006 - 2011 and between 2012/13 to 2017/18 seasons the club had a trophy drought. 

They have won a total of seventy(70) trophies namely;

6 European Cup (UEFA Champions League) - 1977, 1978, 1981, 1984, 2005 and 2019 more than any other English club.

3 UEFA Cup - 1973, 1976 and 2001.

4 UEFA Super Cup - 1977, 2001, 2005 and 2019.

1 FIFA Club World Cup (2019).

On the home front, they won their first league title in 1900/01, and their 19th league title in 2019/20.

7 FA Cup title - 1965, 1974, 1986, 1989, 1992, 2001 and 2006.

A record 8 League Cup - 1981, 1982, 1983, 1984, 1995, 2001, 2003 and 2012

15 FA Community Shields

Liverpool Stats this season

With seven games remaining, Liverpool win their first championship since 1990 - it is the earliest any side has ever won the Premier League title. 

Jurgen Klopp's men surpassed the achievements of Man United in 2000/01 and Man City's centurion of 2017/18, both of those teams clinched the league with five games left.

Their lead of 23 points at the top of the table is the largest held by a champion in English top-flight history.

They need 15 points from their last seven games to set a new record points total for a top-flight campaign, and can also become the first team to win every single home game in a single season.

They defeated each and every team in a top-flight league season, first time a champion will do so.

Liverpool have 16 clean sheets so far, scored 70 goals and conceded 21 goals (49 goal difference), and 86 points.

They have won all their home matches at Anfield - 16 wins and just one loss all season in the league.

Congrats to the Jurgen Klopp led side for scaling all hurdles to break the jinx. (kudos)

Can Liverpool defend the title next season is something to ponder on?

Fabiyi Ridwan

Sports Writer and Analyst

Goal Line Technology

Goal line technology (GLT) is a technical means of instantly determining whether the whole of a ball has crossed the goal line. 

In July 2012, the International Football Association Board (IFAB) officially approved the use of goal line technology, amending the laws of the game to permit its use.

Hawk-Eye was the first company to receive a FIFA Goal Line Technology (GLT) license and is widely considered to be the most accurate. 

The goal line technology was officially used in association football for the first time in the FIFA Club World Cup in Japan 2012.

Following the successful tournament in 2012, FIFA decided to implement the technology at its major tournaments. It was then used in the 2013 FIFA Confederation Cup and 2014 World Cup in Brazil.

The first goal given by the technology was on the 15th of June 2014 in a group stage match between France and Honduras at that year World Cup. 

The first official use of goal-line technology in Europe was in May 2013 at the Copa Amsterdam - a youth tournament played at the Olympic stadium in Amsterdam. 

The GoalRef system was used in all matches to ensure that all goals were indicated correctly and to support the referee with close calls. 

The English Premier League became the first national competition to vote in favor of introducing goal line technology for the 2013/14 season and is currently working on the implementation of the Hawk -Eye system. 

A study suggested that in the 2010/11 Premier  League season, errors took place in nearly 30 percents of the time - which video replays could have prevented (incorrect goal line decisions has decided some important games).

World governing body FIFA made about 300,000 pounds after EPL installed goal line technology in all top-flights stadia.

Ex-FIFA president Sepp Blatter had  opposed the use of goal line technology until Frank Lampard 's disallowed goal in the 2010 World Cup where the ball clearly crossed  the line. 

Failures /Criticism of GLT

Multiple errors in the 2017/18 Coupe de la Ligue 

quarter finals led to the use of the Goal Control System to be temporarily suspended by the Ligue de Football Professional. 

It failed to award Paris Saints Germain (PSG) their second goal against Amiens,  which the video assistant referee overtuned. 

In the match between Angers and Montpellier, the system incorrectly flagged the Referee, causing the match officials to not used it for the second half. 

Recently, the system came under scrutiny in June 2020 in a Premier League match between Aston Villa and Sheffield United as the technology failed to award a goal for Sheffield United despite the fact that Aston Villa goalkeeper Orjan Nyland had clearly carried the ball over the goal line after mishandling a free kick from Sheffield United 's Oliver Norwood. 

Hawk -Eye apologized,  explaining the failure as due to an anomalous amount of occlusion of its cameras' view of the incident. 

How can machine be making errors, and can human correct the errors? 

Fabiyi Ridwan

Sports Writer and Analyst