VAR? For or against

[Boycey]

It's about to strike again

[BennyHarp]

VAR over time will remove the spontaneous joy out of a goal being scored. During the champions league I could feel myself resigned to waiting for VAR after every goal and its just not the same when you have to wait for a decision to be made. I think this takes away a large element of why people love football and the game will be poorer for it. In 5 years time, nobody will be celebrating goals.

[Tony Baloney]

Agree Benny. It appears from the woman's WC that it is set to become even more invasive.

[Milltown Row2]

The results show will start around 6.15pm now on a Saturday

[Boycey]

It's gonna cause bedlam at grounds with no screens? Old Trafford and Anfield are 2 that spring to mind straight away but I'm sure there are others in the Premier League.

[Milltown Row2]

It's gonna cause bedlam at grounds with no screens? Old Trafford and Anfield are 2 that spring to mind straight away but I'm sure there are others in the Premier League.

Will it be used only for PL?

[RedHand88]

What was with the Cameroon players yesterday. It's almost as if they don't understand the offside rule. Shambolic scenes.

[thewobbler]

VAR is a vile, vile thing. Soccer's flowing nature and low scoring makes it sport's equivalent of chaos theory.

Almost every VAR decision rides against two ultimate issues: 1. how far back in time does this passage of play go back? 2. Technology can not interpret intent.

But it's very existence will see referees learn not to trust their instincts, and to use it as an opportunity to make perfect decisions, even one cannot exist.

Before too long I'd expect a court case against a referee, who would have little no facility to protect himself. And that hopefully will be the end of this nonsense.

[RedHand88]

It's gonna cause bedlam at grounds with no screens? Old Trafford and Anfield are 2 that spring to mind straight away but I'm sure there are others in the Premier League.

That's the only two believe it or not. Surprising isn't it?

[haranguerer]

VAR is a vile, vile thing. Soccer's flowing nature and low scoring makes it sport's equivalent of chaos theory.

Almost every VAR decision rides against two ultimate issues: 1. how far back in time does this passage of play go back? 2. Technology can not interpret intent.

But it's very existence will see referees learn not to trust their instincts, and to use it as an opportunity to make perfect decisions, even one cannot exist.

Before too long I'd expect a court case against a referee, who would have little no facility to protect himself. And that hopefully will be the end of this nonsense.

Technology does'nt have to interpret intent. Its still a human looking at it. The notion of a case against a ref is fanciful, but if it were a likely outcome, it would have been a lot more likely (and justified) prior to VAR.

There are clearly teething problems with VAR, that's not surprising. But it and how it is used will evolve, and imo it remains, as a tool to ensure big decisions are correct, a welcome advent.

[thewobbler]

VAR is a vile, vile thing. Soccer's flowing nature and low scoring makes it sport's equivalent of chaos theory.

Almost every VAR decision rides against two ultimate issues: 1. how far back in time does this passage of play go back? 2. Technology can not interpret intent.

But it's very existence will see referees learn not to trust their instincts, and to use it as an opportunity to make perfect decisions, even one cannot exist.

Before too long I'd expect a court case against a referee, who would have little no facility to protect himself. And that hopefully will be the end of this nonsense.

Technology does'nt have to interpret intent. Its still a human looking at it. The notion of a case against a ref is fanciful, but if it were a likely outcome, it would have been a lot more likely (and justified) prior to VAR.

There are clearly teething problems with VAR, that's not surprising. But it and how it is used will evolve, and imo it remains, as a tool to ensure big decisions are correct, a welcome advent.

How would a case against a ref have been more likely before VAR?

Previously a referee had a split second choice to make based on the evidence from his vantage point. Nobody could expect perfection.

Now, they have access to dozens of angles and slow-mo. But for a decent sized percentage of inspections, their final decision will be solely based on instinct - ie the decision could logically go in either direction, but the ref's intuition has the final call. As the majority of these decisions will lead to goals being awarded or disallowed, it will ultimately be their instinct that decides the destination of trophies.

That's a recipe for litigation.

[David McKeown]

I've long been against VAR for a number of reasons.

1. It creates a hierarchy of rules. The decision to award a throw in that leads to the ball being thrown into the box which leads to the handball has just as much impact as the decision to award the handball but one is subject to VAR the other is not.
2. The injustice of non reviewable wrong decisions is increased.
3. It slows down the game dramatically.
4. I've seen a few but only a few images of how offside lines need to be adjusted to take account of the angle the camera is at and how lenses work. I assume FIFA have access to adjusted images but I'd question accuracy of non fixed cameras in this regard. Chelsea v Spurs in the Carabao Cup was a great example of this. Chelsea's non calibrated camera showed Kane to be well offside. Sky's calibrated camera showed he was on.
5. It doesn't seem to have improved decision making or lead to greater consistency. Take Spurs v Man City in CL. Spurs scores but the VAR official thought it was handball who referred it to the on pitch ref who disagreed. If those officials were reversed the goal wouldn't have stood. VAR is being used too widely and is only shifting the point at which people argue with officials decisions.
6. It's used for subjective decisions including offside.

[Boycey]

In a parallel universe without VAR Ole Gunnar has gone back to Molde and City are European Champions...

[Hound]

In a parallel universe without VAR Ole Gunnar has gone back to Molde and City are European Champions...

Very interesting point!

[TabClear]

In a parallel universe without VAR Ole Gunnar has gone back to Molde and City are European Champions...

Very interesting point!

And goalline technology has not been implemented and Liverpool are Premier League champions.