The system is too often introducing travesties into games instead of clearing them up and changes are neededDissatisfaction with VAR seems to be back with a vengeance after the incidents of last weekend, with a meeting of Premier League clubs scheduled for next month to discuss the implementation of remote technology and look into the reasons referees have been avoiding their pitchside monitors.Most of us imagined the ability to check a quick replay on the sidelines would be all officials needed to sort out contentious incidents not readily picked up in real-time. When VAR was being dreamed up the general idea seemed to be that travesties on the pitch that led to the referee being besieged by aggrieved defenders –...
The officiating scandals of the 2002 World Cup must remind us why the advent of the video referee is a good thingWith that collective wit for which football fans are justly renowned, the Spurs contingent at the Etihad Stadium broke into song last weekend when Manchester City’s winning goal was ruled out in the last minute. “VAR, my lord, VAR,” they chanted, to the tune of Kumbaya, as the video assistant referee scrubbed out Gabriel Jesus’s dramatic clincher, adjudging Aymeric Laporte to have handled the ball with the most glancing of touches. It was a case of Jesus being thwarted by a higher authority.But if Spurs fans saw VAR as a kind of divine intervention, a deus ex machina worthy...
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...
The thought that VAR may end dispute over decisions has proved laughably misguided, if anything football is more controversial than everThere was a time before VAR. There may be a time after VAR. But this is the age of VAR and nothing can ever happen but that VAR is central to the discussion. The thought that VAR may end controversy has proved laughably misguided; if anything it has made the controversies worse because incidents that would have been seen as a referee making an understandable call in a difficult situation are perceived as being part of a wider failure of process, which is a small step from all-out conspiracy.Once upon a time, not so very long ago, Brazil’s 2-0 win...
Scotland and Nigeria have suffered from the strict enforcement at penalties which is doing the competition no favoursI can only imagine the emotions felt by the Scotland players when their dreams of qualification for the knockout rounds died on Wednesday night as Florencia Bonsegundo’s twice-taken penalty hit the back of the net, deep into stoppage time, and denied them victory over Argentina. For them, it must have been absolutely heartbreaking. Watching the drama unfold from a distance, I was feeling something quite different: fury.I don’t think I have ever been as incensed by a football rule in my life. I was a fan of VAR at last year’s World Cup: coming in at the right time, cleaning up refereeing errors...