Future of football or complete nonsense? World Cup fans can't decide if they love or hate VAR

VAR has made its debut in the 2018 World Cup – and it’s already dividing fans watching the action in Russia.

The Video Assistant Referee, which was trialled in the FA and Carabao Cups last season, has been introduced in Russia to help decide on goals, penalties, straight red cards and mistaken identity.

It’s not the first use of video assistance in a World Cup – goal line technology was used for the first time in Brazil four years ago.

The officials who help with VAR watch each match in a remote location (FIFA’s ‘VAR Room’), and have microphone connections to the in-game officials so they can tell them if a mistake is made.

VAR has already made game-changing decisions in Russia – France were awarded a penalty against Australia after a VAR review, while Sweden were also given a spot-kick after the referee initially waved ‘play on’.

Fans appear somewhat divided in their verdict of the controversial technology – some believe it slows football down too much and makes the game too much of a robotic formality:

Some Twitter users were just amused by the concept of referees sat in a darkened room…

There was also this crafty acronym:

Others took issue with the fact that VAR is still essentially controlled by humans:

A huge number of fans, however, have accepted that VAR is here to stay – whether we like it or not – and have chosen to embrace video assistance referees as a necessary step in eradicating mistakes.

SLIDESHOW: The 32 star players for every World Cup nation (Click image below)