The Impact of Video Assistant Referee Technology on Referee Decisions and Spectator Experience in Professional Football: A Literature Review

This paper aims to perform a review and analyze the literature on the Video Assistant Referee (VAR) to develop insights into how VAR research is developing, offer a critique of this technology's impact on decision accuracy and spectator psychology, and underline future research opportunities. Using a Structured Literature Review (SLR) method adapted from Massaro et al. (2016) , this study categorizes and analyzes empirical articles related to VAR implementation in elite leagues (such as LaLiga and EPL) as well as cross-country data to answer three main research questions regarding accuracy, game flow, and fan perception. Findings demonstrate that VAR successfully increased referee decision accuracy significantly from 92.1% to 98.3%. Technically, VAR has a minimal impact on players' physical performance but slightly increased the total match duration and decreased effective playing time. From a spectator perspective, although fairness is acknowledged to have increased , there is friction regarding delay duration and confusion within the stadium , particularly among older fans. Practically, this paper provides insights for league governing bodies regarding the importance of information transparency in stadiums (such as the use of big screens) to maintain fan satisfaction , as well as the necessity for continuous referee training. This study contributes to the sport management literature by synthesizing objective data (technical performance/accuracy) and subjective data (fan perception) that were previously often researched separately, providing a holistic overview of technology integration in sports