Fair Play: Notes on the Algorithmic Soccer Referee

Abstract

The soccer referee stands in for a judge. Soccer’s Video Assistant Referee (“VAR”) system stands in for algorithms that augment human deciders. Fair play stands in for justice. They are combined and set in a polycentric system of governance, with implications for designing, administering, and assessing human-machine combinations.

Keywords: Algorithms, Big Data, governance, polycentricity, institutions, systems, football, soccer, referees, robots, adjudication, decisionmaking, human-machine hybrids

JEL Classification: D70, D73, K40, K42, P48