For the first of LAYTH YOUSIF’S Canadian World Cup diaries, he discovers a Gunners’ haven in Oshawa, Ontario, and explores the town’s role in the historic 1937 labour strikes
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VAR has changed the face of European football, but one country is holding out
Djurgården's fans protest against VAR during the Allsvenskan football match between Djurgården and IK Sirius FK at Tele2 Arena in Stockholm, Sweden, April 11, 2023
AS THE Swedish league got underway this spring, yellow-and-black-clad supporters of Stockholm club AIK held up an enormous banner containing a long, vivid story about the dark forces of modern football conquering the world.
“The whole world? No!” read the words on the giant display. “There was, in fact, a small area that successfully resisted the intruders, surrounded by modern football’s smoldering ruins.”
The intruder in this case is VAR — the high-tech video review system formally written into the laws of football in 2018 to help referees make the right calls in the biggest moments.
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