TORONTO

Everything changes next weekend — and Michael Bradley isn’t thrilled.

Major League Soccer will implement a Video Assisted Referee (VAR) league-wide beginning next weekend.

The new initiative will see a fifth “VAR referee” placed in a booth at every MLS stadium to monitor four instances within the game: Goals, penalty decisions, red cards and mistaken identity.

Should he or she need to, VAR officials will alert referees when a play needs be reviewed. Much like other professional sports, the referee then will review the play on a pitch-side video screen.

Goals can be waived off for any offence — an uncalled foul, an uncalled handball, offside — if the offence occurred during the attacking phase leading up to the goal. A “clear and obvious” error must have occurred for a play to be overturned.

Unsurprisingly, not everyone is on board with the controversial change. Bradley told the Toronto Sun ahead of Sunday’s match that subjective decisions are a necessary part of the game.

“I don’t like it,” Bradley bluntly stated. “I’m a traditionalist when it comes to this stuff. I think the human error when it comes to refereeing is part of it.”

While the subjective nature of some refereeing decisions — penalties, fouls, offside — will remain, the league hopes offering its officials more information concerning game-changing plays is the way of the future.

“I’ve been on the wrong end of bad calls and I’ve been on the right end of them,” Bradley added. “I’ll continue to be on the wrong end of calls.

“But, for me, this is sport. Again, our game is so grey. In terms of the flow and the way the game is played, (VAR) is not something I’m a fan of at the moment.”

The league hired longtime Premier League referee Howard Webb to oversee a refereeing system that debuted at June’s Confederations Cup.

While some fans and players have expressed concern over how much VAR will slow down games, others believe MLS officials should have just as much in-game information as fans watching on their TVs.

Not Bradley. The American captain argues the theatre of it all — the bad calls, the big decisions, the debate post-game — is an essential element of the sport. He says it's up to the referees to make big decisions during the run of play.

“For me, the best referees are the ones who, in an unassuming way, go about trying to referee the game in an honest way,” he told the Sun. “They don’t make it about themselves.

“They aren’t worried about what the latest initiatives are. They just try to have as little influence as possible while keeping the game under control. The best referees do that in a way that shows a feel and understanding for the game.”

Like it or not, VAR is on the way, beginning next Saturday when the Reds travel to Washington D.C.’s RFK Stadium.