A lot is said about VAR and a lot of that is nonsense.
I say that, because if you are to have any sensible rational conversation about it, you have to include the negatives AND the positives that we have seen.
My belief is that whilst there are clearly improvements needed in how the Premier League have decided to implement VAR, overall, it has shown that using the technology is absolutely essential.
It all feels a bit like old timers talking about the mythical good old days in general life, you know, those great days of no inside toilet, poor child mortality stats, poverty rife and life expectancy solow.
Yes, just like life in general in the past, there were also a lot of good things about football in the past.
However… it had got to a ridiculous stage, whereby we would sit at home and seeing clear as day match after match decided by outrageous cheating, goals given and not given – when the complete opposite was so obvious, so many things where so difficult / impossible for the referee and those running the line to see in the blink of an eye, an eye that was so often obstructed and/or not up with play.
At a conservative estimate, I would suggest that there are probably around twenty times less serious errors made these days, since VAR was brought in.
As for the cheats, they hardly ever bother now because unless you play for Liverpool you won’t be rewarded for diving these days, quite the opposite.
So for me, you might as well be campaigning for a return to outside toilets, if you think going back to not using VAR technology is the way to go.
Conclusions
There is no way back to now going without technology BUT that doesn’t mean we should just leave things as they are.
However, what is needed is a grown up debate.
I would say the biggest irritant for most fans is the sheer length of time that we are all left waiting around when VAR gets involved.
I think there are various ways that these delays can be cut drastically BUT for that to happen, a key thing for me is that football fans and everybody else have to accept that there will still be errors made, that perfection isn’t possible. The reality is that of course this is already the case BUT since VAR has been introduced there has been a beyond huge reduction in mistakes from match officials.
It may not appear that way BUT this is because in the past, the countless mistakes and instances of cheating were just accepted as that was what happened because match officials didn’t have the benefit of what the rest of us could see on TV screens and slow motion replays. Whereas now, every single perceived error by match officials (including VAR) is endlessly analysed, due to how few of them there are. It is just that the few that are looked at, are given so much debate and publicity.
When human beings are involved, there will always be errors, or at least perceived errors, how different people see different incidents, such as when two players go in for a challenge.
The thing is, VAR was never ever claimed to make football be a sport without any error from match officials, just to do the best that it can, with the added help of technology. However, under so much pressure to try and get as close as possible to absolutely no errors made, the Premier League in particular has ended up going to ridiculous lengths, which are key to producing such ludicrous delays as things stand. We were supposed to be getting rid of obvious errors, not somebody hundreds of miles away from the match getting a magnifying glass out in order to analyse an image to see if there is an offside because an attacking player’s hand is an inch ahead of the defender’s foot. It has been proved as well, that when somebody kicks a ball, it can make a massive (in the circumstances) difference as to which freeze frame image to analyse, as when somebody kicks a ball there are a series of images that can be used as the ball makes contact with the ball and it then moves, deciding which image to use then has at the very least inches of difference but in reality far more, which makes it a nonsense that then inches decide an offside, never mind which part of the body is deemed offside! The Alexander Isak second ‘goal’ at Anfield on his debut that would have put United 2-0 up, yet given offside when he started his run just inside their half and if indeed he was offside, it was miniscule the margin of error.
Suggested VAR changes for the Premier League
One of the key problems that leads to so much frustration from fans is that we have a situation where the VAR doesn’t have enough power
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Home / Opinion / VAR is proved absolutely essential in Premier League – These adjustments will help
OPINION
VAR is proved absolutely essential in Premier League – These adjustments will help
1 MIN AGO 1 COMMENT
A lot is said about VAR and a lot of that is nonsense.
I say that, because if you are to have any sensible rational conversation about it, you have to include the negatives AND the positives that we have seen.
My belief is that whilst there are clearly improvements needed in how the Premier League have decided to implement VAR, overall, it has shown that using the technology is absolutely essential.
It all feels a bit like old timers talking about the mythical good old days in general life, you know, those great days of no inside toilet, poor child mortality stats, poverty rife and life expectancy so low.
Yes, just like life in general in the past, there were also a lot of good things about football in the past.
However… it had got to a ridiculous stage, whereby we would sit at home and seeing clear as day match after match decided by outrageous cheating, goals given and not given – when the complete opposite was so obvious, so many things where so difficult / impossible for the referee and those running the line to see in the blink of an eye, an eye that was so often obstructed and/or not up with play.
At a conservative estimate, I would suggest that there are probably around twenty times less serious errors made these days, since VAR was brought in.
As for the cheats, they hardly ever bother now because unless you play for Liverpool you won’t be rewarded for diving these days, quite the opposite.
So for me, you might as well be campaigning for a return to outside toilets, if you think going back to not using VAR technology is the way to go.
Conclusions
There is no way back to now going without technology BUT that doesn’t mean we should just leave things as they are.
However, what is needed is a grown up debate.
I would say the biggest irritant for most fans is the sheer length of time that we are all left waiting around when VAR gets involved.
I think there are various ways that these delays can be cut drastically BUT for that to happen, a key thing for me is that football fans and everybody else have to accept that there will still be errors made, that perfection isn’t possible. The reality is that of course this is already the case BUT since VAR has been introduced there has been a beyond huge reduction in mistakes from match officials.
It may not appear that way BUT this is because in the past, the countless mistakes and instances of cheating were just accepted as that was what happened because match officials didn’t have the benefit of what the rest of us could see on TV screens and slow motion replays. Whereas now, every single perceived error by match officials (including VAR) is endlessly analysed, due to how few of them there are. It is just that the few that are looked at, are given so much debate and publicity.
When human beings are involved, there will always be errors, or at least perceived errors, how different people see different incidents, such as when two players go in for a challenge.
The thing is, VAR was never ever claimed to make football be a sport without any error from match officials, just to do the best that it can, with the added help of technology. However, under so much pressure to try and get as close as possible to absolutely no errors made, the Premier League in particular has ended up going to ridiculous lengths, which are key to producing such ludicrous delays as things stand. We were supposed to be getting rid of obvious errors, not somebody hundreds of miles away from the match getting a magnifying glass out in order to analyse an image to see if there is an offside because an attacking player’s hand is an inch ahead of the defender’s foot. It has been proved as well, that when somebody kicks a ball, it can make a massive (in the circumstances) difference as to which freeze frame image to analyse, as when somebody kicks a ball there are a series of images that can be used as the ball makes contact with the ball and it then moves, deciding which image to use then has at the very least inches of difference but in reality far more, which makes it a nonsense that then inches decide an offside, never mind which part of the body is deemed offside! The Alexander Isak second ‘goal’ at Anfield on his debut that would have put United 2-0 up, yet given offside when he started his run just inside their half and if indeed he was offside, it was miniscule the margin of error.
Alexander Isak
Suggested VAR changes for the Premier League
One of the key problems that leads to so much frustration from fans is that we have a situation where the VAR doesn’t have enough power…
It is a real muddle and indeed in certain ways the VAR decides things without the on the pitch referees making a decision themselves, however, what they have insisted on is that the referee on the pitch supposedly always makes the final decision.
What I would suggest is that the referee on the pitch is still in overall charge BUT that the far more VAR decision making is automatically accepted.
It is headline news when VAR directs an on the pitch referee to the pitchside monitor and the referee sticks to the original decision. We are talking far less than 1% of occasions, I am guessing something like 0.1% in the Premier League, where the VAR direction isn’t agreed with. This is what I meant earlier, we have to accept maybe the odd extra mistake for the greater good. Why have all that wasted time where on thousands of occasions we are all waiting around for extra minutes whilst the referee goes and looks at the TV replays at the side of the pitch, when maybe one in a thousand will see that make any difference? It is a running joke that once VAR sends the on the pitch referee to the monitor, we all just know that the two will agree, so why continue with it??? Just let the VAR opinion be instantly taken and acted upon. For example, I thought that the Schar goal should have stood at Fulham BUT once the VAR sent the referee to the screen I knew it was going to be disallowed, that this farce was just wasting everyone’s time, that VAR had already decided what was going to be the final decision and the referee never going to go against it.
I also think automated offsides are a no-brainer. Then instead of this inch by inch analysis of one part of a body ahead of the other player’s, instead have it whereby offside is only given against the attacking player when there is clear daylight between defender and attacker, as in only OBVIOUS offsides are given, thus the attacking player gets the benefit of the doubt and we see more goals.
I actually also think that VAR should get involved in MORE instances in a match, where clear and obvious errors and cheating have occurred.
I am talking about a lot of instances where it is transparently clear cheating has taken place and/or an error made in a decision but where it currently doesn’t fall into the category where VAR gets involved.
Simple stuff like when throw-ins and corners are quite clearly given the wrong way and we see this on our TV screens. Why not the VAR communicating with the referee, or the referee’s assistants, telling them in their earpiece that the decision is obviously the other way.
More importantly, an incident in the Newcastle v Everton game had me fuming. This time it was against but could just as easily be one of our players doing it at other times. The game was goalless and Everton striker Beto ran beyond Schar but ended up going wide, so what he did was that thing where he kicked the back of his left leg with his own right foot quite clearly (for those of us watching on TV) to make it look like a foul. The TV commentators immediately picked up on it and the replay showed that clearly the player was cheating. However, instead of a free-kick to NUFC and a booking (I would make it a red card for this type of obvious cheating) for Beto, VAR can’t get involved and Everton have a free-kick in a very dangerous position and when played in, Tarkowski had a free header and should have scored, but cleared the bar and had his head in his hands.
So currently with how VAR operates, that cheating could have led to a goal, then at the other end you could see the other team denied a goal because somebody’s hand is perceived (guessed?) to be an inch further forward than a defender’s foot???
Wrapping it all up, VAR has made things so much better, overwhelmingly so, in cutting down errors and cheating. However, the main thing is that it now needs to be reset and an acceptance of a few more errors happening BUT worth it for the massive benefits of far less time when matches are stopped and left waiting for these joint decisions between VAR and the on the pitch referees.
