EACH week brings more complaints about VAR decisions — some wrong, some reasonable and a few outrageous.
The system’s one success is with the offside law. Well, almost.
VAR failed to help out West Ham as it produced another shocker in their loss to Manchester United
Two things rankle with me. Firstly, decisions made because a hand or arm is beyond the last defender and, secondly, the time taken in Stockley Park between incident and ruling.
A ref used to make even the most difficult decisions in a maximum of just a few seconds.
The VAR people — AKA ‘The Committee for Equality, Justice, Impartiality and Correctness to a Millimetre’, or the ‘Let’s Have a Cup of Tea and Think About It Crew’ — have a tendency to take between two and four MINUTES.
Time, basically, in which to make that cup of tea and drive fans to a drink that’s a fair bit stronger.
Understandably, everyone gets restless. Bad enough in spring, the waiting seems like an eternity in freezing winter.
Impartial television viewers soon swop the yes-no chunter of commentators filling in time and switch over to something more exciting. Maybe a programme about antiques or gardening.
So this message is simple — get a move on.
If you want injustice, the offside arm shambles hits the bullseye. As Aston Villa manager Dean Smith argued: You can’t score with your arm, so why should it be offside?
Smith’s cure ought to be taken up. Refs and/or The Committee seem to have listened to the squawks of protest from all over the place after several ludicrous penalty decisions for handball.
Soon there may be no need for a player to impersonate a naughty schoolboy by hiding his arms behind his back in the penalty area.
Even more infuriating is that neither the ref, linesman nor The Committee could come to a conclusion that a Manchester United kick along the wing had swung yards out of play before swinging back in again — a non-committal that allowed a goal in a game my club West Ham lost.
There has been a Brexit-like split between the pros and antis of VAR. I’m pleased to say I was among those who repeatedly warned against the system.
But what did we know?
The FA liked it. So did Fifa and Uefa. According to them, millions of fans knew ‘sweet FA’, while the game’s governors tried to do the impossible and perfect the laws. But a year or two later, dissatisfaction is rising fast and now includes many among football’s elite.
Jurgen Klopp admitted after Liverpool experienced two controversial cases on Wednesday: “I used to be one of the people who said VAR is a good idea. I’m really not sure I would say that again.”
My preference would be to drop the whole programme.
Crystal Palace star Andros Townsend wants the Premier League to scrap VAR now
Efficient refs are far superior in terms of speed of delivery and only slightly less accurate in decision-making.
Furthermore, supporters accept human error where they find it hard to forgive forensic analysis that comes up with rulings that mystify them and the players.
After all, you can boo a ref but it’s daft to boo a collection of TV screens 100 miles away.
There’ll be no full U-turn, though. Officialdom prefers to look judicial rather than trusting the man on the spot.
And to be honest, there are some refs who would opt for second opinions which take the heat off.
So we are stuck with VAR, which could well stand for Very Average Reputation.
Its operators must act with speed, accuracy and understanding or continue to corrode our beautiful game.
Source: Soccer - thesun.co.uk
