Norwegian football match interrupted after fans threw fish cakes onto the pitch during VAR revolt

What to eat with fish cake?

On Sunday, the match between Rosenborg BK and Lilleström in the Norwegian top football league was interrupted and eventually put on hold because fans bombarded the pitch with fish cakes in protest against the use of the video assistant referee (VAR).

From the beginning of the game, fans expressed their anger at VAR in general with their fishcakes.

The protests forced the referee to stop the game and send the players to the locker room.

Play eventually resumed, but this only increased the protests, with fans throwing tennis balls and smoke bombs at Lerkendal Stadium.

The game was interrupted four times within 30 minutes before it was abandoned.

Since its official introduction in September 2016, when VAR assisted referees in making important decisions, it has become an integral part of the game.

However, many fans want to reverse this change, which has sparked heated debates and uprisings.

Numerous fan associations claim that games in the Norwegian Eliteserien are botched because referees spend a lot of time using the system to make their decisions, ESPN reported.

In June, during a separate match between Lilleström and KFUM Oslo, fans threw hundreds of tennis balls onto the pitch within the first few minutes of the match.

“It was our way of expressing our dissatisfaction,” Lillestrom fan Joacim Moeller told Norwegian newspaper VG.

“Everyone in Norway knows that we are against VAR. People are getting fed up with it. There is no improvement. It is ultimately ruining our sport.”

In addition, VAR has also attracted criticism in other leagues.

ESPN reported that Sweden’s top leagues decided against introducing VAR in April due to resistance from clubs.

“If I have counted correctly, 18 elite clubs and two districts have stated that they do not want to introduce VAR,” the president of the Swedish Football Association (SvFF), Fredrik Reinfeldt, told the newspaper Aftonbladet.

“We respect that. That is why we did not put forward a proposal for VAR at the last representative meeting and I do not expect that to be the case in the future either. I stand by respecting the democratic rules of the game.”