Kristian, a bearded fan of Valernga, remained a challenging posture outside the intility arena in Oslo, Norway.
“Let’s not give up,” he said. “We want to be the first country to remove this disease. So other countries will realize that VAR can be defeated.”
It was the first weekend of Norway’s football season, and inside the stadium of the largest Oslo club, the stands where Valerenga’s loudest fans gather was completely empty when the game started.
Thousands remained outside, refusing to enter the 15-minute milestone as part of a series of coordinated protests involving fans of all Norway’s first division clubs, Eliteserien, as well as others from the lower division.
It was a different scene in the visitor area, where Viking fans were employing another tactic to signal their hostility to the video referee system, which uses a referee watching television replays away from the stadium to review important field decisions. Viking fans took their places, but remained silent for the first 15 minutes.
All that could be heard was the screams of the players, an occasional whistle of the referee or the sound of the boot against the ball. “Nei Til Var!” The track said in the deserted stands. Translation: “No to Var!”
The day before, with the faded drammen spikes visible at a distance, Stromsgodet’s departure against Rosenborg started the new season with a silent protest of its own. Both groups of fans participated. No songs, no applause – almost silence until the signal reached after 15 minutes.
Rosenborg fans gathered behind a track – “NFF Mafia” – which made clear what they thought about the NFF (Norwegian Football Federation). Light posts outside the stadium were decorated with stickers that said “hater var” (“hate the var”).
“Our fans who are against VAR have the right to express their feelings,” said Alfred Johansson, manager of Rosenborg. “It’s so much better like this —15 minutes of silence – than other forms of action. Because we also know how it is when a game has to be interrupted, or even canceled because of protests.”
In July last year, the Rosenborg game against Lillestrom was interrupted when fans threw smoke bombs, tennis balls and fish dumplings in the countryside. Other games at Eliterien, made up of 16 teams, were the target of similar ways.
This season, organized fans have decided that they will not actively interrupt games, but indignation is real in a country where soccer clubs are run by their members and many believe that VAR has been implemented without a proper consultation process.
Critics accuse the revision system of being unreliable and prone to human errors, causing unnecessary delays; interrupting the flow of games; And perhaps worse of all, ruining the spontaneous joy that the most beautiful moment of football – a goal – should bring.
In January, the 32 clubs of Norway’s two main divisions voted for 19 to 13 in favor of a motion to “Discontinuation of VAR as soon as possible.”
What seemed like a historic victory, however, did not lead to any change. Instead, the NFF held a National Assembly on March 1 to its 450 members, up to the base level, and they voted by 321 to 129 against the abolition of technology. The indignation has reached the peak since then.
The reaction against VAR can be felt in many ways in this part of Scandinavia. A reminder to NFF President Lise Klaveness came outside his home in Nordstrand, a suburb south of Oslo.
“Maybe I parked my car a little too far away,” she said. “Someone put a note on my windshield playing on how my car was parked and ‘need to go to Var’ to decide what to do about it. Very funny.”
Klaveness, Norway’s lawyer and football player, has changed his opinion about the VAR over the years.
“I didn’t like Var when it was introduced,” she said. “I was a commentator in Russia during the 2018 World Cup, and it was the first time VAR was used in an international championship. It was disturbing. We didn’t understand, because we had to wait so long for decisions. It seemed an interruption. People said it worked well, but that wasn’t the feeling that players and commentators had.
NFF critics accused the federation of being shaken by the initial vote against VAR and found a way to circumvent it involving teams below in the pyramid that would never play in a match using the system. It is broadly believed that these clubs were encouraged to vote according to the NFF’s preference to maintain the technology.
National protests, according to its organizers, went to “increase the awareness that fans’ democracy is under attack by undemocratic forces that want to take control of Norwegian football.”
Klaveness built his reputation as a progressive leader who was willing to ask difficult questions to FIFA (International Football Federation) and UEFA (Union of European Football Associations), regardless of the consequences for herself, when it was the World Cup at Qatar and the process of application for the 2030 and 2034 tournament. Norway are wondering if UEFA has influenced the decision to continue with technology. The accusation is that the governing body of European football may have pressured Klaveness at a time when it is being included in the UEFA Executive Committee.
Klaveness feels uncomfortable with the suggestion.
“Rumors create roots,” she said. “But they don’t really have roots. We went to Uefa to ask what arguments they had for or against VAR, and they were clear who didn’t want to influence us.”
A working group led by Raymond Johansen, former mayor of Oslo and former Member of the Board of Valernga, performed a four-month review of VAR’s positive and negative points. According to the NFF, many coaches and players confided that they wanted to maintain the technology, but dare not say that publicly. Many fans expressed the same.
“We talked to many people,” said Klaveness. “I’ve heard the accusation that ‘we just didn’t want to lose the discussion.’ It doesn’t even come close to the truth. It’s a matter of democracy and in the end it was clear that the silent majority wanted to keep VAR.”
This will not convince some of the protesters, who plan new coordinated actions and displayed protest ranges when the Norwegian team played a match of the 2026 World Cup qualifiers in Moldovia.
However, Klaveness, unlike many football leaders, is a passionate defender of freedom of expression. She also believes in the right to protest. “We can’t turn against our fans; we can’t hate the fact that they are screaming,” she said. “They have a very relevant argument.”
She is also determined to face protesters from front. Two days before the National Assembly, Klaveness was at Carls, a pub in Oslo, to meet 200 anti-Var activists from all over the country. Has she won everyone? No, but she says it was important to “show respect and demand respect back.” It was, according to her, “very intense.”
However, there is also a reaction against the reaction, and in the land of Erling Haaland and Martin Odegaard, VAR advocates are becoming increasingly vocal as well.
In November, Fredrikstad President Jostein Lunde called for feedback from club members, who voted 70 to 65 in favor of VAR.
“I made it very clear that VAR should continue,” said Lunde. “I tried to be a strong voice in favor of VAR because people who want changes tend to speak louder, while those who do not want change are often silent. I have received a lot of criticism from different fans. But most silent was silent for a long time.”
What about the players? Do they want VAR to be abolished?
“The opinions are very varied,” said Ole Selnaes, Rosenborg player with 32 games for the Norwegian team. “Some want, but others don’t. I can see both sides. Yes, it didn’t work perfectly, but we have to remember that we’re still at first. For me, it would be strange to remove Var if almost everyone in Europe has it.”
The challenge for Klaveness is to find a way in the midst of all this when, as she admits, it is almost impossible to align everyone’s opinions. It has not been, she said, a “happy case.”
In the end, however, she said it was “the most transparent process in the world.” She believes that VAR has dramatically improved since its creation and that the good will overcome the bad if people give time.
“People around the world are dissatisfied with the VAR,” said Klaveness. “No one is saying it’s perfect. But it has improved a lot.”
