In the Premier League, it seems that every single week there’s another controversy with the video assistant referee (VAR), accompanied by opinion pieces across media platforms about how VAR is ruining the game of soccer. The addition of video review to the Premier League has frustrated both pundits, who seem to disagree with every decision that VAR makes, and fans, who often chant “f — VAR” whenever a decision does not go their club’s way.

Soccer fans are highly traditional, and therefore often loathe to make changes to the laws of the game, which is why the football community has placed all of the blame for the controversial rulings on the recent insertion of video review into European football. Yet the reality is that VAR is doing very well at the job it is supposed to do: Enforcing the laws of the game and correcting officiating mistakes by the referees. The problem lies not with VAR, but with the laws of the game itself.

Soccer is a unique sport because so many of its major rules are subjective rather than objective, meaning they are subject to the opinion of the referees rather than to an objective measurement. What one referee thinks is a foul, another referee might not. What one referee thinks is a severe yellow card, another might deem a red. What one referee might see as an intentional play of the ball with the hand or arm, another referee might see as the arm being in a natural position. More than any other sport, the laws of soccer have wide gray areas.

Given that this is the case, is it any surprise that VAR has led to such controversy? In a sport where two people watching the same play can reasonably have opposite opinions on what the proper call should be, every time VAR makes a decision, half of viewers are going to get upset. In order to set some kind of standard, the Premier League has instructed VAR officials to only overturn “clear and obvious errors” by on-field referees, which is why there are very few nonpenalty and nonred card calls that VAR overturns. But that hardly clears things up, because on any given potential penalty or red card or handball, there are fans who will argue there was a clear and obvious refereeing error.

The laws of the game are so subjective that on any given play there will be a wide swath of viewers who think VAR got it wrong. There are those who clamor that VAR got it wrong in upholding a call on the field, claiming there was a clear and obvious error. Yet the few times that VAR does overturn the ruling of the referee, it gets accused of breaking its promise not to “re-referee” games. It simply cannot win.

There are some aspects of the rules of soccer that are objective, but even when VAR deals with those, it gets bashed. There have been several occasions this season where VAR has chalked off goals that were millimeters offside. Fans have gotten annoyed at these calls, saying that VAR was not intended to chalk off goals that close. But you know what? Those plays are offside, even if it’s only barely so, and VAR’s job is to enforce the rules. If that’s a problem, then change the rules to give the attacker a few centimeters’ worth of leeway — don’t criticize VAR for doing what it’s supposed to do.

In every other major sport in the world, from American football to hockey, from basketball to baseball, video review works without major issues. Only in soccer is there a problem. Therefore, the fault does not lie with the video-review system, but with the sport itself. Prior to VAR’s implementation, there were still controversial rulings and noncalls all across the sports; VAR’s insertion into the game has only continued that, and, to be frank, there is nothing that can be done to get rid of controversy in soccer. It’s just the nature of the game. Fans need to realize that and accept it instead of pointing fingers at VAR, which is just doing its job.