It seems to have become part of the World Cup viewing experience: you’re watching the game. Your team makes a goal. You celebrate, tentatively: because before you know it, VAR, the video assistant referee, is checking, and there’s a chance the goal is getting annulled.

The ubiquitous use of VAR has been one of the great controversies at this year’s World Cup. FIFA argues it’s making the game fairer; many fans and teams say it’s getting out of hand.

The VAR was not always the villain of soccer.

In fact, there was a time when fans and players clamored for it. It all goes back to the 2009 World Cup qualifiers, to a match between France and Ireland. Thierry Henry, a forward for France, assisted on a goal. To many, on the field and watching on TV at home, it was obvious that Henry had touched the ball with his hand. But the referee never called a foul.

This was hardly the first time that it happened: fútbol lovers will point to the infamous Argentina-England game in the 1986 World Cup, featuring a hand goal by Argentine soccer legend Diego Maradona (commonly referred to as “The Hand of God”). The difference was that by 2009, the technology was available to review the play right then and there, and make a better decision.

FIFA, soccer’s ruling body, is incredibly reluctant to change its rules. Up until 1970, teams weren’t allowed to make substitutions. That was the same year in which red and yellow cards were introduced (previously, a referee would simply issue a warning or send a player off for bad behavior).

FIFA referee Clement Turpin watches a VAR replay screen to check for a possible penalty during the World Cup quarterfinal soccer match between Norway and England in Miami Gardens, Fla., Saturday, July 11.

Chris Carlson/AP

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Chris Carlson/AP

When FIFA does intend to make a change, it often first tests it out in the U.S.

“A lot of innovations in soccer, just even putting names on the back of jerseys started in the United States,” says Professor Chris Davis at Adelphi University. Davis, who studies soccer history, says American fans are typically not so caught up in soccer traditionalism and are more rapid adopters of technological change. This is how VAR came to be tested in 2014 and 2015 during Major League Soccer games.

It was officially introduced at the 2018 World Cup. Here’s how it works: there’s a referee crew on the field, and a separate crew watching the game on video with replays showing many angles. For the most part, Davis says, fans liked it when it was introduced. “Clear instances were being corrected, and I think that was the beauty of it: we had clear instances of protecting the integrity of the game.”