A trip to Stockley Park gives a valuable insight into the VAR process, and also showed me that referees are actually quite pleasant, normal people“What we have to do is find a way to help referees out.” This is Tony Pulis – then the manager of West Brom – speaking in 2015. “I would definitely call now for managers to have two calls each and every game, where there are 30 seconds and they can have a video link-up with people upstairs who can watch it on video. It will eradicate the major decisions referees are getting wrong that actually affect games of football. We have to work hard to do that in what is the greatest league in the...
Referees know they can make a mistake on a bad tackle when they see an incident in a flash and it’s a cop-out not to punish serious fouls on the basis of video evidenceWe all make mistakes. Even us football writers, as difficult as it may be to believe, have been known to drop the odd ricket over the years. I must confess, to my eternal shame, that in the mild panic of a last-minute, potentially deadline-busting goal during my early years of covering Manchester City I managed to type in the wrong name for the scorer, Gareth Taylor, and credit his heroics to, well, this is awkward ... myself instead.The readers of the newspaper I was working for at...
Juventus goalkeeper’s protest to Michael Oliver – which saw him sent off – may cause unpleasant repercussions for the embattled officials at the lowest levels of footballHeartfelt sympathy is extended to Gianluigi Buffon, of course, railing with much of Italy against the referee Michael Oliver’s last-minute penalty decision which wiped out Juventus’ marvellous three-goal Champions League second-leg comeback against Real Madrid. Oliver, remaining intently officious while the Juventus players circled him in disbelieving outrage, then met Buffon’s excessive protests with a red card, sending the great, giant goalkeeper off in the last match of his epic Champions League career.It would take a cold heart, maybe, not to support Buffon in his passionate reaction and forgive his outbursts afterwards against the...
The experiment, which has left fans without a clue what is going on, has shown control of a game is best left to the referee and linesmenAs a pundit, Robbie Savage is not generally known for being incisive but he was bang on the money with his condemnation of the latest VAR shambles. No one in the ground had a clue what was going on, was the gist of his Wembley assessment as Tottenham’s Cup tie against Rochdale was repeatedly interrupted.That is the whole problem with VAR, and the reason a groundswell of terrace opinion is forming against its use in other leagues across Europe. While it might masquerade as progress, it is actually just another slap in the face for...
New system is having teething problems but can be refined by making it quicker and sticking more closely to its ground rulesThis is both the trickiest fix to effect and the most vital. On Wednesday night the Wembley crowd could have succumbed to hypothermia in the time it took Paul Tierney to resolve decisions. As Mauricio Pochettino pointed out, having to wait two minutes to know whether you can celebrate a goal is a bit of a buzzkill. VAR is supposed to check all “reviewable” decisions (goals, penalties, red cards, mistaken identity). Goals are particularly problematic because the game stops and cannot restart until a decision is confirmed. Quite simply, these confirmations need to be quicker. Greater experience may help...