Who is being addressed now? Establishing recipiency in video assistant referee (VAR) protocols

Abstract

This article examines how video assistant referees (VARs) and on-field referees (REFs) establish recipiency in headset-mediated communication during professional football matches. A VAR is part of an off-field video review team that monitors the broadcast feed and can recommend that the REF review specific incidents to support decision making. Drawing on 107 official VAR recordings published by the Turkish Football Federation (2024–2025), the study uses ethnomethodology and conversation analysis to analyze how VAR protocols are initiated through recurrent summons practices. The analysis shows that VARs mobilize a limited but flexible repertoire to secure the REF as the next relevant recipient—pre-positioned names, dual identifications, institutional self-designations, name-only summonses, and escalated repetition in noisy environments. REFs display recipiency, both verbally and through embodied actions such as whistle blowing, producing the “TV screen” gesture, and moving to the sideline monitor. Overall, the findings demonstrate how recipiency is secured as the first interactional step that enables timely coordination and accountable decision making in a technologically mediated, time-critical institutional setting.