So, I think we all know that refs are for all practical purposes blind. So why not make them actually blind? We could put a blindfold on them, ref by sound only… kidding.

So by blind I actually mean similar to the context of a blind experiment. This essentially means unbiased by an expected outcome. The reasoning is this - it always feels to me that the refs are much less likely to overturn calls than keep them. I wish I had the data to back this up, but I don’t. I’m not sure if it’s ego or what, but I’ve definitely seen refs fail to overturn calls that seem pretty obvious to everyone involved.

So to me, the solution is to send the videos of the play to refs in another location, and do not tell them what the call on the floor was. That way they won’t be biased by what the original call was. I think this would make challenges and reviews feel a lot more “fair”. It could take out potential biases of the ref as well, and provide stability in crucial situations. You could even remove the score so the reviewing refs wouldn’t know how important the call was.

Here are some potential pitfalls and solutions:

• The actual refs may have seen something that wasn’t on the replay - The reviewing refs should have the ability to say “we don’t know” or “this was 50-50”, and that can defer to the call on the floor or the actual ref.
• The refs reviewing won’t know the context of the flow of the game - While some might not see this as a problem, I can see the arguments for it. If the refs are calling every ticky-tack foul, then they’d probably want the challenges to be ruled consistently with the rest of the game. Solution: Have the remote refs watching the game, but on a 30-second or so delay. When the whistle blows, the clock stops. That way, the video can be forwarded without them being biased by the final call, but they would still have the game context.
• The calling refs are sometimes in the video, tipping the call - They potentially could be blocked out of the video, and maybe AI could be used to do it quickly.
• Some original calls are just obvious by the context of the play - I think this is inevitable, as sometimes just the fact that the whistle was blown makes it clear why it was blown. For those cases, maybe this doesn’t help that much. For certain calls though, like blocks/charges, it could be game-changing (literally).

What do you all think?