Originally Posted by
belchardo
you guys have got it the wrong way round. there's a marketing genius sitting in FFA headquarters that came up with the following plan:
Problem: nobody talks about the a-league
Solution: come up with a regenerating story arc so irresistible that people can't help but talk about it
thus, the random-generator-VAR-system was created.
like a plane, the guys in the VAR bunker (who themselves are referees, but are instead actors dressed as refs who have been told to activate the system anytime something interesting happens) don't actually control the system. they press the button, and the system scrolls through a series of rules (how long since one of a number of twitter tags has been mentioned, how many facebook posts per minute related to the a-league, what major world events are occurring that are reducing a-league coverage etc etc) and then decides on the appropriate answer.
the machine goes ding, a couple of wheels spin and the decision is put up on the board to relay to the on-field referee.
obviously, this system has a special "Sydney FC" and "Melbourne Victory" mode, which moves the rules a little to ensure they come out the better of any decisions made during the game.
it's a self-learning system, so each week we get a slightly more outrageous result, thus guaranteeing we never get complacent and therefore guaranteeing we never stop talking about the A-league.
it's really quite ingenious and took thousands of hours of labour and billions of dollars. it's why we can't afford Usain Bolt. they're even considering cutting the dollars the socceroos earn at the next world cup to cover the costs.