FOOTBALL life without VAR is bearable.
More than that – by all the evidence from the FA Cup so far, it is a reasonable proposition.
One incident in particular provides support for this view.
It occurred when Birmingham goalkeeper Bailey Peacock- Farrell beat away a shot from Newcastle’s Joe Willock on or beyond the goal-line.
Blues supporters thought the man with the fanciest name in football had just kept out the shot until the linesman flagged and referee Matt Donohue waved play to the centre spot.
Willock had equalised and his side went on to win the fourth-round tie 3-2.
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With no goal-line technology in play because the match was held at a League One ground, imagine VAR trying to pick that apart.
Referee Donahue would have asked for a ruling on a very tight decision.
Cue a delay while set-squares and microscopes were (imaginatively) brought into play and a verdict finally reached.
Not exactly the magic of technology.
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I prefer the speed of the ref’s reaction, his assistant’s verdict here was swift and almost certainly correct. No VAR no cry.
What a shame that we’ll now see VAR used for the rest of the competition.
It used to be carry-on regardless in the Premier League, too, but in the endless squabble between perfectionists and realists, the seekers of absolute truth won.
It may be less than an invention to suggest a referee be able to press a button and an AI verdict will come back instantly with an answer.
Until that slightly worrying day, let us be pleased that necessity led the FA for a while to abide by the whistle and leave VAR to gather dust.
People fortunate enough to support a Premier League club are less lucky and have total VAR complete with constant interruptions.
EFL have it in play-off finals and promise it elsewhere very soon.
There are, it is true, several plusses to technology, such as quick and correct answers on whether a goal-line has been crossed.
MARK HALSEY: Questions have to be asked of VAR after Lewis-Skelly sending off… here’s what SHOULD have happened
By Mark Halsey
VAR Darren England should have recommended a review as soon as referee Michael Oliver showed Arsenal’s Myles Lewis-Skelly a straight red card for his challenge on Wolves’ Matt Doherty.
An official has to decide whether the challenge was careless or reckless — careless is a free-kick only, reckless is a yellow card — or worthy of a red card.
When a player lunges at an opponent with one or two feet from the front, the side or from the back which endangers the player’s safety with excess force or/and brutality, it must be sanctioned with a red.
I saw it as a reckless challenge worthy of a yellow, not a red.
So why did Darren not recommend a review? Once the red card was shown, the VAR should have intervened.
If Michael had the opportunity to view the challenge again, I’m sure he would have changed his mind, cancelled the red card and issued a yellow.
As for Arsenal fans’ views that Michael is biased against them, I’m not buying into that. You can never question the integrity of a match official and Michael is one of our best referees.
Officials cannot get everything right and that is why we have VAR to help. So questions have to be asked of Darren.
With the second yellow for Joao Gomes after catching Jurrien Timber on the ankle, you could argue that was a worse challenge than the Lewis-Skelly one.
The major success of VAR, however, is the speed and precision of offside verdicts.
Linesmen are good judges but inevitably do not always find it possible to decide on the basis of the length of a foot or elbow. On VAR it is a doddle and quick.
Not so with free-kicks or yellow or red cards. These decisions are sometimes a good deal longer and often dubious.
VAR itself does not make corrections, it is a helpmate for refs to make theirs.
The methodology is sound but perfection is no easier to find than the holy grail.
Still, because VAR gives referees a second look, it soon became the Japanese knotweed of our game – once present, nothing short of a bomb will stop it.
Various methods are being tried to speed up the process and waiting times have been cut to average 64 seconds.
Yet the solution is easy to see. Bin total VAR. Trust the ref.
Football was successful for well over a century before VAR.
Referees in those days might have protested at being held responsible for United or City losing but the truth is they still are.
They are the focus of the blame game and although do-gooders thought VAR would rectify all errors and cut down offensive and obscene shouting among fans, it hasn’t.
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Overall, I would compromise. Tech works on line decisions but is very slow and almost as faulty for fouls given by refs who take only a fraction of the time.
And it’s easier to forgive a wrong decision made by genuine human error, than one made by a machine.
Source: Soccer - thesun.co.uk
