JAMES NALTON writes about Iran's qualification for the tournament and whether the United States is fit to welcome visitors from across the world
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VAR has changed the face of European football, but one country is holding out
Move signals ceasefire in civil war that had broken out in the game
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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