With the development and advancement of technology, various types of high-tech auxiliary equipment have been gradually introduced into football matches to assist referees to officiate the game. The Chinese football Super League (CSL) introduced the video assistant referee (VAR) in the 2018 season. The purpose of this study is to explore the impact of the introduction of VAR on football matches and on referees’ performance. This study compared the data of all 240 games without VAR in the season 2017 and all 240 games with VAR in the season 2018 using Generalized Linear Model (GLM) and means comparison. The following match variables were considered: goals, penalties, red cards, yellow cards, fouls, offsides, playing time in the first half, playing time in the second half and total playing time. The study found that: 1) After the introduction of VAR, the number of offsides and fouls in the Chinese Super League dropped significantly (p < .001); 2) the playing time in the first and second half and the total playing time increased significantly(p < .001); 3) after the introduction of VAR, the home team advantage decreased slightly. The research result can help to better understand the impact of VAR on professional football, especially on the Chinese football Super League, it can also help referees to optimize their refereeing strategy.

中文翻译：

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视频助理裁判对中超联赛的影响

随着科技的发展和进步，各类高科技辅助设备逐渐被引入足球比赛，以协助裁判员进行比赛。中超联赛（CSL）在2018赛季引进了视频助理裁判（VAR）。本研究的目的是探讨引入 VAR 对足球比赛和裁判表现的影响。本研究使用广义线性模型（GLM）和均值比较，比较了 2017 赛季所有 240 场没有 VAR 的比赛和 2018 赛季所有 240 场有 VAR 的比赛数据。考虑了以下比赛变量：进球、点球、红牌、黄牌、犯规、越位、上半场上场时间、下半场上场时间和总上场时间。研究发现：1）引入VAR后，中超越位犯规次数明显下降（p<.001）；2）上半场和下半场上场时间和总上场时间显着增加（p < .001）；3）引入VAR后，主队优势略有下降。研究结果有助于更好地了解VAR对职业足球尤其是中超联赛的影响，也有助于裁判优化裁判策略。