Abstract
Few studies examine the impact of decision-aid technologies in professional sports. Particularly, the literature ignores the perception of football fans. Thus, this study investigates football fans’ satisfaction with video assistant refereeing (VAR). It employed an online survey of 320 football fans in 2017 to assess their satisfaction with VAR, level of identification with their favourite team, level of enjoyment from debating match events, and attitude towards decision-aid technologies in sport. Accordingly, there were high levels of trust in the accuracy, effectiveness, and fairness of VAR, and most football fans favoured VAR. However, fans with higher identification with their favourite team were less satisfied with VAR as it seems to hinder the joy in debating match events. This research contributes to a greater understanding of fans’ preferences towards technology in sports and the importance of debate for fandom identity.
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