{"id":13951,"date":"2026-07-08T20:55:51","date_gmt":"2026-07-08T18:55:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.hossambadrawi.com\/en\/?p=13951"},"modified":"2026-07-14T20:58:00","modified_gmt":"2026-07-14T18:58:00","slug":"dr-hossam-badrawi-writes-for-al-ahram-the-philosophy-of-var-and-the-crisis-of-retroactive-justice","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hossambadrawi.com\/en\/dr-hossam-badrawi-writes-for-al-ahram-the-philosophy-of-var-and-the-crisis-of-retroactive-justice\/","title":{"rendered":"Dr. Hossam Badrawi Writes for Al-Ahram: The Philosophy of VAR and the Crisis of Retroactive Justice"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
\n

The referee blew his whistle, and the Egyptian supporters erupted in a wave of joy that seemed to cross continents.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

It was a beautifully constructed goal, fashioned from five consecutive touches that began deep inside the pitch, flowed through a sequence of crisp passes, and ended with the ball in the back of the net. It was one of those moments in which every element of footballing joy seemed complete.<\/p><\/div>\n

<\/div>\n
Then everything stopped.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
The referee returned to the screen. After several minutes of scrutiny, the goal was disallowed.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
The reason?<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
An alleged foul\u2014not at the moment of scoring, but five phases earlier, in another part of the pitch. The referee had not called it at the time, nor had the player who was allegedly fouled even protested.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
At this point, the sporting event ends and the philosophical question begins.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
First: Who Defines the Boundaries of Time?<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
The rules allow VAR to go back to the beginning of the attacking phase of play. But who determines where an \u201cattack\u201d begins and where the \u201ccontinuity\u201d of that attack ends?<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
That boundary is not a fixed moral principle. It is a procedural decision agreed upon by the refereeing authorities.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
And the distinction between the two is fundamental.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
A moral principle arises from the very idea of justice itself. A procedural rule, by contrast, is a human agreement that can be expanded or contracted according to circumstance.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
If it is permissible to go back five phases of play, why not ten? Why not return to the beginning of the half\u2014or, as frustrated fans sometimes joke, to \u201cyesterday\u201d?<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
When there are no philosophically coherent limits on how far a review may reach backward, the right of review risks becoming a power without a ceiling: invoked when someone chooses to invoke it and ignored when someone chooses not to.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
Second: The Human Eye Versus the Mechanical Eye<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
The referee on the pitch witnessed the moment directly, in real time. He was present within its living context, experiencing the rhythm of the game, its speed, and the pressure of the moment.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
He saw no foul.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
Nor did any of the players protest\u2014not even those who were the closest witnesses and had the greatest interest in doing so.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
The official in the video room, however, sees the event from a distance: frozen, enlarged, slowed down, repeated, and separated from its immediate temporal context.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
Here, an ancient Platonic question returns in modern dress:<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
Does truth lie in the event as it happened, or in the image through which we choose to reconstruct it?<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
When we grant the delayed image greater authority than living testimony, we do not necessarily move closer to the truth. We may simply be replacing one form of truth with another while imagining that magnification is the same thing as certainty.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
Third: The Relativity of the Angle<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
The camera does not lie.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
But neither does it tell the whole truth.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
A camera selects one angle from an infinite number of possible angles, and every angle carries its own potential interpretation. What appears to be a clear stamp from one perspective may look like incidental contact from another.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
When we grant a partial image the status of \u201cabsolute technological neutrality,\u201d we commit an epistemological error: we confuse the neutrality of the instrument with the neutrality of the judgment made through it.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
This reflects a deeper dilemma that extends far beyond the football pitch.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
Every age imagines that its newest instrument\u2014the microscope, the camera, or today artificial intelligence\u2014has finally settled the question of truth.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
And every time, we eventually discover that the instrument has not eliminated human interpretation. It has merely shifted it from the naked eye to the person behind the lens.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
Fourth: The Double Standard<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
The greatest danger in such incidents is not the existence of technology, but the inconsistency with which it is used.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
When one incident is examined under the microscope in order to disallow a goal, while another, similar or even more obvious, is left without review, technology is transformed from an instrument of justice into a mask for bias.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
The presumed neutrality of the machine offers no protection against the bias of the human being who decides when to summon it and when to ignore it.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
Fifth: When Technology Frees an Innocent Person from Prison<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
There is another model of this dilemma, immeasurably more serious, that offers us a mirror through which we may better understand the limits of the \u201cright to go back.\u201d<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
In American courts, people have been released from prison after serving twenty or thirty years because DNA analysis\u2014a technology unavailable at the time of their original trials\u2014proved that convictions once regarded as conclusive were, in fact, wrongful.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
At first glance, the two models appear similar: a new instrument of knowledge reopens a settled judgment and overturns it retroactively.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
Closer reflection, however, reveals fundamental differences that illuminate the entire issue.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
The direction of justice is reversed. In DNA exoneration cases, review corrects an injustice inflicted upon an innocent person and restores freedom that was wrongly taken away. In VAR, by contrast, review often takes away a completed moment of joy and replaces it with deprivation. There, technology is an instrument of liberation; here, it is an instrument of cancellation.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
The procedure is regulated rather than unilateral. Reconsideration of a criminal conviction is neither automatic nor temporally open-ended without standards. It must be formally requested, examined by a court, subjected to demanding evidentiary standards, and conducted through a process in which all parties enjoy full rights of argument and defence.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
A VAR review, by contrast, is immediate and unilateral. There is no counter-hearing, no adversarial process, and the decision is delivered within minutes rather than after years of deliberation.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
Time itself is an irrecoverable loss. In both cases, the passage of time is part of the tragedy\u2014or of the joy. Twenty years of a human life cannot be returned, just as the collective ecstasy of a goal cannot be recreated with precisely the same intensity, even if the decision is later reversed.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
Correction is possible.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
The recovery of lost time is not.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
And here the deeper question connecting the two examples emerges:<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
Is truth something we may discover later and therefore become obliged to use in correcting the past? Or does a judgment made within the living moment possess a degree of procedural sanctity that should be overturned only under exceptional and rigorous conditions?<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
Civilised societies have adopted an extremely demanding standard for overturning criminal convictions because the price at stake is irreplaceable human freedom.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
Football, meanwhile, has created a far looser standard, with blurred temporal boundaries and no adversarial review, even though the price\u2014on its own scale\u2014is also irretrievable: a collective human moment that can never occur in exactly the same way again.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
The true paradox, therefore, is not the existence of review.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
It is the absence of a clear philosophy governing the conditions of review: who has the right to request it, how far backward in time and space it may reach, and what standard of evidence justifies overturning what has already been decided.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
When such a philosophy is absent, an instrument of justice\u2014whether a camera or a forensic laboratory\u2014can become a power without limits: invoked when desired and ignored when inconvenient.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
Beyond the Stadium<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
This is not merely a crisis of football.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
It is a metaphor for an entire age.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
We are gradually replacing the justice of the living moment\u2014with its intuition, context, immediacy, and witnesses\u2014with the justice of the archive: an endless process of review, without clearly defined temporal limits, always capable of reaching backward to overturn what has already been settled and reconstructing the moment from a selected angle rather than from the fullness of the event itself.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
In law, in politics, and in the collective memory of nations, we encounter the same phenomenon.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
Whoever possesses the right to \u201crewind the tape,\u201d and whoever decides where the recording begins and where it ends, may in fact possess a power greater than the event itself.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
The question worth asking, therefore, is not simply:<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
Did the referee make a mistake?<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
The deeper question is:<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
Who guards the limits of the power of those who judge truth, when truth itself can be re-edited from an angle chosen by someone else?<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta hosted a football match this evening.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
But, without intending to, it also posed a question about the philosophy of justice\u2014one whose file will not be closed by the final whistle.<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The referee blew his whistle, and the Egyptian supporters erupted in a wave of joy that seemed to cross continents. It was a beautifully constructed goal, fashioned from five consecutive touches that began deep inside the pitch, flowed through a sequence of crisp passes, and ended with the ball in the back of the net. …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":12385,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[280,281,103,16,197],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13951","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-2026-collective-activities-articles","category-al-ahram","category-all-articles","category-articles-by-dr-badrawi","category-translated-articles"],"yoast_head":"\nDr. Hossam Badrawi Writes for Al-Ahram: The Philosophy of VAR and the Crisis of Retroactive Justice - Dr. Hossam Badrawi<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.hossambadrawi.com\/en\/dr-hossam-badrawi-writes-for-al-ahram-the-philosophy-of-var-and-the-crisis-of-retroactive-justice\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Dr. Hossam Badrawi Writes for Al-Ahram: The Philosophy of VAR and the Crisis of Retroactive Justice - Dr. Hossam Badrawi\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The referee blew his whistle, and the Egyptian supporters erupted in a wave of joy that seemed to cross continents. It was a beautifully constructed goal, fashioned from five consecutive touches that began deep inside the pitch, flowed through a sequence of crisp passes, and ended with the ball in the back of the net. …\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.hossambadrawi.com\/en\/dr-hossam-badrawi-writes-for-al-ahram-the-philosophy-of-var-and-the-crisis-of-retroactive-justice\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Dr. Hossam Badrawi\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/hossambadrawi\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:author\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/hossambadrawi\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-07-08T18:55:51+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-07-14T18:58:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.hossambadrawi.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/IMG_7146.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1018\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"663\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Dr. Hossam Badrawi\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@HossamBadrawi\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@HossamBadrawi\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Dr. Hossam Badrawi\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"7 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"NewsArticle\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.hossambadrawi.com\\\/en\\\/dr-hossam-badrawi-writes-for-al-ahram-the-philosophy-of-var-and-the-crisis-of-retroactive-justice\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.hossambadrawi.com\\\/en\\\/dr-hossam-badrawi-writes-for-al-ahram-the-philosophy-of-var-and-the-crisis-of-retroactive-justice\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Dr. Hossam Badrawi\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.hossambadrawi.com\\\/en\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/71dac15488abcc9dd96527db12aee32a\"},\"headline\":\"Dr. Hossam Badrawi Writes for Al-Ahram: The Philosophy of VAR and the Crisis of Retroactive Justice\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-07-08T18:55:51+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-07-14T18:58:00+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.hossambadrawi.com\\\/en\\\/dr-hossam-badrawi-writes-for-al-ahram-the-philosophy-of-var-and-the-crisis-of-retroactive-justice\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":1437,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.hossambadrawi.com\\\/en\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/71dac15488abcc9dd96527db12aee32a\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.hossambadrawi.com\\\/en\\\/dr-hossam-badrawi-writes-for-al-ahram-the-philosophy-of-var-and-the-crisis-of-retroactive-justice\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.hossambadrawi.com\\\/en\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2025\\\/02\\\/IMG_7146.jpg\",\"articleSection\":[\"2026 Collective Activities & Articles\",\"Al Ahram\",\"All Articles\",\"By Dr Badrawi\",\"Translated Articles\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.hossambadrawi.com\\\/en\\\/dr-hossam-badrawi-writes-for-al-ahram-the-philosophy-of-var-and-the-crisis-of-retroactive-justice\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.hossambadrawi.com\\\/en\\\/dr-hossam-badrawi-writes-for-al-ahram-the-philosophy-of-var-and-the-crisis-of-retroactive-justice\\\/\",\"name\":\"Dr. Hossam Badrawi Writes for Al-Ahram: The Philosophy of VAR and the Crisis of Retroactive Justice - Dr. Hossam Badrawi\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.hossambadrawi.com\\\/en\\\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.hossambadrawi.com\\\/en\\\/dr-hossam-badrawi-writes-for-al-ahram-the-philosophy-of-var-and-the-crisis-of-retroactive-justice\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.hossambadrawi.com\\\/en\\\/dr-hossam-badrawi-writes-for-al-ahram-the-philosophy-of-var-and-the-crisis-of-retroactive-justice\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.hossambadrawi.com\\\/en\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2025\\\/02\\\/IMG_7146.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-07-08T18:55:51+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-07-14T18:58:00+00:00\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.hossambadrawi.com\\\/en\\\/dr-hossam-badrawi-writes-for-al-ahram-the-philosophy-of-var-and-the-crisis-of-retroactive-justice\\\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/www.hossambadrawi.com\\\/en\\\/dr-hossam-badrawi-writes-for-al-ahram-the-philosophy-of-var-and-the-crisis-of-retroactive-justice\\\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.hossambadrawi.com\\\/en\\\/dr-hossam-badrawi-writes-for-al-ahram-the-philosophy-of-var-and-the-crisis-of-retroactive-justice\\\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.hossambadrawi.com\\\/en\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2025\\\/02\\\/IMG_7146.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.hossambadrawi.com\\\/en\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2025\\\/02\\\/IMG_7146.jpg\",\"width\":1018,\"height\":663,\"caption\":\"Screenshot\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.hossambadrawi.com\\\/en\\\/dr-hossam-badrawi-writes-for-al-ahram-the-philosophy-of-var-and-the-crisis-of-retroactive-justice\\\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.hossambadrawi.com\\\/en\\\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Dr. Hossam Badrawi Writes for Al-Ahram: The Philosophy of VAR and the Crisis of Retroactive Justice\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.hossambadrawi.com\\\/en\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.hossambadrawi.com\\\/en\\\/\",\"name\":\"Dr. Hossam Badrawi\",\"description\":\"Official Website\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.hossambadrawi.com\\\/en\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/71dac15488abcc9dd96527db12aee32a\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.hossambadrawi.com\\\/en\\\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":[\"Person\",\"Organization\"],\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.hossambadrawi.com\\\/en\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/71dac15488abcc9dd96527db12aee32a\",\"name\":\"Dr. Hossam Badrawi\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.hossambadrawi.com\\\/en\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2025\\\/12\\\/dr.-hossam-logo-e1762983997572.png\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.hossambadrawi.com\\\/en\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2025\\\/12\\\/dr.-hossam-logo-e1762983997572.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.hossambadrawi.com\\\/en\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2025\\\/12\\\/dr.-hossam-logo-e1762983997572.png\",\"width\":526,\"height\":272,\"caption\":\"Dr. Hossam Badrawi\"},\"logo\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.hossambadrawi.com\\\/en\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2025\\\/12\\\/dr.-hossam-logo-e1762983997572.png\"},\"description\":\"He is a politician, intellect, and prominent physician. He is the former head of the Gynecology Department, Faculty of Medicine Cairo University. He conducted his post graduate studies from 1979 till 1981 in the United States. He was elected as a member of the Egyptian Parliament and chairman of the Education and Scientific Research Committee in the Parliament from 2000 till 2005. As a politician, Dr. Hossam Badrawi was known for his independent stances. His integrity won the consensus of all people from various political trends. During the era of former president Hosni Mubarak he was called The Rationalist in the National Democratic Party NDP because his political calls and demands were consistent to a great extent with calls for political and democratic reform in Egypt. He was against extending the state of emergency and objected to the National Democratic Party's unilateral constitutional amendments during the January 25, 2011 revolution. He played a very important political role when he defended, from the very first beginning of the revolution, the demonstrators' right to call for their demands. He called on the government to listen and respond to their demands. Consequently and due to Dr. Badrawi's popularity, Mubarak appointed him as the NDP Secretary General thus replacing the members of the Bureau of the Commission. During that time, Dr. Badrawi expressed his political opinion to Mubarak that he had to step down. He had to resign from the party after 5 days of his appointment on February 10 when he declared his political disagreement with the political leadership in dealing with the demonstrators who called for handing the power to the Muslim Brotherhood. Therefore, from the very first moment his stance was clear by rejecting a religion-based state which he considered as aiming to limit the Egyptians down to one trend. He considered deposed president Mohamed Morsi's decision to bring back the People's Assembly as a reinforcement of the US-supported dictatorship. He was among the first to denounce the incursion of Morsi's authority over the judicial authority, condemning the Brotherhood militias' blockade of the Supreme Constitutional Court. Dr. Hossam supported the Tamarod movement in its beginning and he declared that toppling the Brotherhood was a must and a pressing risk that had to be taken few months prior to the June 30 revolution and confirmed that the army would support the legitimacy given by the people\",\"sameAs\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/www.facebook.com\\\/hossambadrawi\\\/\",\"https:\\\/\\\/x.com\\\/HossamBadrawi\"]}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Dr. Hossam Badrawi Writes for Al-Ahram: The Philosophy of VAR and the Crisis of Retroactive Justice - Dr. Hossam Badrawi","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.hossambadrawi.com\/en\/dr-hossam-badrawi-writes-for-al-ahram-the-philosophy-of-var-and-the-crisis-of-retroactive-justice\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Dr. Hossam Badrawi Writes for Al-Ahram: The Philosophy of VAR and the Crisis of Retroactive Justice - Dr. Hossam Badrawi","og_description":"The referee blew his whistle, and the Egyptian supporters erupted in a wave of joy that seemed to cross continents. It was a beautifully constructed goal, fashioned from five consecutive touches that began deep inside the pitch, flowed through a sequence of crisp passes, and ended with the ball in the back of the net. …","og_url":"https:\/\/www.hossambadrawi.com\/en\/dr-hossam-badrawi-writes-for-al-ahram-the-philosophy-of-var-and-the-crisis-of-retroactive-justice\/","og_site_name":"Dr. Hossam Badrawi","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/hossambadrawi\/","article_author":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/hossambadrawi\/","article_published_time":"2026-07-08T18:55:51+00:00","article_modified_time":"2026-07-14T18:58:00+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1018,"height":663,"url":"https:\/\/www.hossambadrawi.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/IMG_7146.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Dr. Hossam Badrawi","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@HossamBadrawi","twitter_site":"@HossamBadrawi","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Dr. Hossam Badrawi","Est. reading time":"7 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https:\/\/www.hossambadrawi.com\/en\/dr-hossam-badrawi-writes-for-al-ahram-the-philosophy-of-var-and-the-crisis-of-retroactive-justice\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.hossambadrawi.com\/en\/dr-hossam-badrawi-writes-for-al-ahram-the-philosophy-of-var-and-the-crisis-of-retroactive-justice\/"},"author":{"name":"Dr. Hossam Badrawi","@id":"https:\/\/www.hossambadrawi.com\/en\/#\/schema\/person\/71dac15488abcc9dd96527db12aee32a"},"headline":"Dr. Hossam Badrawi Writes for Al-Ahram: The Philosophy of VAR and the Crisis of Retroactive Justice","datePublished":"2026-07-08T18:55:51+00:00","dateModified":"2026-07-14T18:58:00+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.hossambadrawi.com\/en\/dr-hossam-badrawi-writes-for-al-ahram-the-philosophy-of-var-and-the-crisis-of-retroactive-justice\/"},"wordCount":1437,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.hossambadrawi.com\/en\/#\/schema\/person\/71dac15488abcc9dd96527db12aee32a"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.hossambadrawi.com\/en\/dr-hossam-badrawi-writes-for-al-ahram-the-philosophy-of-var-and-the-crisis-of-retroactive-justice\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.hossambadrawi.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/IMG_7146.jpg","articleSection":["2026 Collective Activities & Articles","Al Ahram","All Articles","By Dr Badrawi","Translated Articles"],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.hossambadrawi.com\/en\/dr-hossam-badrawi-writes-for-al-ahram-the-philosophy-of-var-and-the-crisis-of-retroactive-justice\/","url":"https:\/\/www.hossambadrawi.com\/en\/dr-hossam-badrawi-writes-for-al-ahram-the-philosophy-of-var-and-the-crisis-of-retroactive-justice\/","name":"Dr. Hossam Badrawi Writes for Al-Ahram: The Philosophy of VAR and the Crisis of Retroactive Justice - Dr. Hossam Badrawi","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.hossambadrawi.com\/en\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.hossambadrawi.com\/en\/dr-hossam-badrawi-writes-for-al-ahram-the-philosophy-of-var-and-the-crisis-of-retroactive-justice\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.hossambadrawi.com\/en\/dr-hossam-badrawi-writes-for-al-ahram-the-philosophy-of-var-and-the-crisis-of-retroactive-justice\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.hossambadrawi.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/IMG_7146.jpg","datePublished":"2026-07-08T18:55:51+00:00","dateModified":"2026-07-14T18:58:00+00:00","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.hossambadrawi.com\/en\/dr-hossam-badrawi-writes-for-al-ahram-the-philosophy-of-var-and-the-crisis-of-retroactive-justice\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.hossambadrawi.com\/en\/dr-hossam-badrawi-writes-for-al-ahram-the-philosophy-of-var-and-the-crisis-of-retroactive-justice\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.hossambadrawi.com\/en\/dr-hossam-badrawi-writes-for-al-ahram-the-philosophy-of-var-and-the-crisis-of-retroactive-justice\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.hossambadrawi.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/IMG_7146.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.hossambadrawi.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/IMG_7146.jpg","width":1018,"height":663,"caption":"Screenshot"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.hossambadrawi.com\/en\/dr-hossam-badrawi-writes-for-al-ahram-the-philosophy-of-var-and-the-crisis-of-retroactive-justice\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.hossambadrawi.com\/en\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Dr. Hossam Badrawi Writes for Al-Ahram: The Philosophy of VAR and the Crisis of Retroactive Justice"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.hossambadrawi.com\/en\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.hossambadrawi.com\/en\/","name":"Dr. Hossam Badrawi","description":"Official Website","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.hossambadrawi.com\/en\/#\/schema\/person\/71dac15488abcc9dd96527db12aee32a"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.hossambadrawi.com\/en\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":["Person","Organization"],"@id":"https:\/\/www.hossambadrawi.com\/en\/#\/schema\/person\/71dac15488abcc9dd96527db12aee32a","name":"Dr. Hossam Badrawi","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.hossambadrawi.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/dr.-hossam-logo-e1762983997572.png","url":"https:\/\/www.hossambadrawi.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/dr.-hossam-logo-e1762983997572.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.hossambadrawi.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/dr.-hossam-logo-e1762983997572.png","width":526,"height":272,"caption":"Dr. Hossam Badrawi"},"logo":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.hossambadrawi.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/dr.-hossam-logo-e1762983997572.png"},"description":"He is a politician, intellect, and prominent physician. He is the former head of the Gynecology Department, Faculty of Medicine Cairo University. He conducted his post graduate studies from 1979 till 1981 in the United States. He was elected as a member of the Egyptian Parliament and chairman of the Education and Scientific Research Committee in the Parliament from 2000 till 2005. As a politician, Dr. Hossam Badrawi was known for his independent stances. His integrity won the consensus of all people from various political trends. During the era of former president Hosni Mubarak he was called The Rationalist in the National Democratic Party NDP because his political calls and demands were consistent to a great extent with calls for political and democratic reform in Egypt. He was against extending the state of emergency and objected to the National Democratic Party's unilateral constitutional amendments during the January 25, 2011 revolution. He played a very important political role when he defended, from the very first beginning of the revolution, the demonstrators' right to call for their demands. He called on the government to listen and respond to their demands. Consequently and due to Dr. Badrawi's popularity, Mubarak appointed him as the NDP Secretary General thus replacing the members of the Bureau of the Commission. During that time, Dr. Badrawi expressed his political opinion to Mubarak that he had to step down. He had to resign from the party after 5 days of his appointment on February 10 when he declared his political disagreement with the political leadership in dealing with the demonstrators who called for handing the power to the Muslim Brotherhood. Therefore, from the very first moment his stance was clear by rejecting a religion-based state which he considered as aiming to limit the Egyptians down to one trend. He considered deposed president Mohamed Morsi's decision to bring back the People's Assembly as a reinforcement of the US-supported dictatorship. He was among the first to denounce the incursion of Morsi's authority over the judicial authority, condemning the Brotherhood militias' blockade of the Supreme Constitutional Court. Dr. Hossam supported the Tamarod movement in its beginning and he declared that toppling the Brotherhood was a must and a pressing risk that had to be taken few months prior to the June 30 revolution and confirmed that the army would support the legitimacy given by the people","sameAs":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/hossambadrawi\/","https:\/\/x.com\/HossamBadrawi"]}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hossambadrawi.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13951","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hossambadrawi.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hossambadrawi.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hossambadrawi.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hossambadrawi.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13951"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.hossambadrawi.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13951\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13952,"href":"https:\/\/www.hossambadrawi.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13951\/revisions\/13952"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hossambadrawi.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12385"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hossambadrawi.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13951"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hossambadrawi.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13951"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hossambadrawi.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13951"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}