VAR - 2020/21

[danielwood5]

I think it's because we are all bamboozled by the gravy train, the media agendas , basic lack of questioning by people, the media being part of the self serving gravy train and also because we generally put up with shit nowadays seduced by the banality of reality tv and social media.

I think it helps that most fans only really get on the end of really bad decisions occasionally too, they still see it as "it all evens out over a season".
We see it mess up more often as over the last two seasons our rivals have been United and Liverpool who, along with Leicester, have made the most of the VAR assisted "well there's contact so he's entitled to go down" rules. We've watched over the last two seasons them picking up undeserved points through cheating while we've had stone wall penalties waved away and goals chalked off because of phantom handballs.
Until fans of other teams see their direct rivals getting a leg up game after game while they get nothing then they won't see too much wrong with it. I think it's more likely that more and more teams will just start diving a'la Mane and Fernandes and so they won't see anything wrong with the system.
Wolves were screwed by VAR more than most last season and they've been noticeably more "unbalanced" when they get in or near the opposition's box this season and I don't think that's a coincidence.

 

[stonerblue]

I find it difficult to conclude that it is getting better considering we've probably just had one of the worst weeks in terms of VAR since it started. I see virtually no broad direction of improvement at all, just some periods where it's not quite as terrible and then periods where it feels like the people making the VAR decisions have completely lost their minds. There are two things that particularly bother me about VAR, firstly that the trade off before you even start is huge. You lose an awful lot of the spontaneity of the game that most of us love When you have fans saying they don't really celebrate goals that much anymore and players saying they are wary of fully celebrating goals when they score then you have significant problems IMO. Arguably that wouldn't be an acceptable trade off even if VAR was sorting out most of the injustices of incorrect refereeing decisions. When you throw in that to the untrained eye it seems to have made negligible difference to getting the "subjective" decisions right, in my view it certainly doesn't even come close to being worth the trade off.
My second issue is that I can't shift the feeling that if a referee gets something wrong in real time, it is incredibly infuriating but you can just about grudgingly accept it. For decisions to be just as bad when someone has looked at it repeatedly on replay becomes unacceptable on a completely different level. Atwell was fucking awful on Tuesday, that's one thing but for VAR to not correct even one of those decisions is beyond outrageous. Ultimately it just isn't fit for purpose for the subjective decisions and definitely isn't worth the trade off of what we lose from the game. I think they should only have VAR for factual calls and even then they need to review how they treat offsides because these mm offside calls that have essentially made "level" offside are unacceptable.

Great post. Beats my regular 'it's fucking shite' contributions

 

[stonerblue]

That's the biggest issue with it for me, when referees got things wrong you could mostly just accept it. Most of the time you could understand why a referee had made a decision even if it was wrong, we've all been at games and seen stuff in real time so know how fast things happen.
Pretty much all the major controversies in football decision making have been created by the media, when you have 24 hour sports news channels they have to be filled with something and controversies are the easiest way of filling that time. "Did Balotelli stamp on poor Scotty Parker, well be discussing this over the next 4 hours so be sure to text in and let us know what you think".
Manufactured controversies for the stay at home audience, the reason we have VAR is to rectify these "controversies" and to give the armchair fans something to watch but it's sucked all the enjoyment out of the game for match going fans and for those fans who just want to watch a game of football and enjoy celebrating goals scored.
VAR hasn't removed the controversial and incorrect decisions, has made diving worse and made offsides become more favourable to the defenders so what is the point in it? How has it made the game better?

I shuddered last week when I heard a sky commentator say that bar may not be perfect but it 'makes things interesting. Twat.

 

[old blue]

you are correct what joy we should experience. Is there any other business or institution (political parties and government aside) that would suspend an employee for 10 days for ineptness and a few months later promote them to a critical post?

Might as well put the guru Walton in charge.

I would rather put him in Walton!

 

[NZBlue]

I would rather put him in Walton!

Goodnight John boy :-)

 

[Vicmeldrew666]

Ears on all for fans - as in other sports, or it proves they are hiding stuff. If they are, and recordings have been kept, then the "officials" and everyone else involved has to be prosecuted. (Fifa was dirty - pl is filthy).

 

[Xhavenjoe]

I was watching the Heineken Cup rugby final yesterday.
La Rochelle player yellow carded for a high tackle.
There was a review on the large screen and you could quite clearly hear the conversation between the ref and the people in the reviewing studio.
They explained why and what they were looking for and upgraded decision to a red.
The ref called over team captain and explained reason for the change in his decision and all could still be heard. Everyone knew what was going on.
It was done so professionally in rugby's equivalent to our champions league final with the added pressure of both teams being from the same country

 

[IrishBlueSince92]

How can that Bale goal stand after it hits Kane’s hand when the rule has been that any goal where it hits a players hand in the build up cannot stand whether it’s deliberate or not
It seems they just relaxed that rule in the last week for the sake of it

 

[Franny's toilet roll]

Happy to see Vardy and Leicester missing out. How did VAR miss it. Happy to see Lineker put back in his box

 

[Gray]

At the match yesterday there was no on screen information telling us if there was a VAR check going on for any of the goals or for Everton’s penalty.

 

[Eusebio]

If you think VAR doesn’t work well in England check this red card 17 min in the first half of the cup final

 

[Blue Mist]

How can that Bale goal stand after it hits Kane’s hand when the rule has been that any goal where it hits a players hand in the build up cannot stand whether it’s deliberate or not
It seems they just relaxed that rule in the last week for the sake of it

They didn't relax it for the weekend, they relax it dependent on which team it is.

 

[Manc Born & Bred]

I was watching the Heineken Cup rugby final yesterday.
La Rochelle player yellow carded for a high tackle.
There was a review on the large screen and you could quite clearly hear the conversation between the ref and the people in the reviewing studio.
They explained why and what they were looking for and upgraded decision to a red.
The ref called over team captain and explained reason for the change in his decision and all could still be heard. Everyone knew what was going on.
It was done so professionally in rugby's equivalent to our champions league final with the added pressure of both teams being from the same country

Ref also spoke French throughout to the players although from memory the explanation for the red was part English and part French.

 

[MillionMilesAway]

How can that Bale goal stand after it hits Kane’s hand when the rule has been that any goal where it hits a players hand in the build up cannot stand whether it’s deliberate or not
It seems they just relaxed that rule in the last week for the sake of it

It doesn't - it has to immediately leads to a goalscoring opportunity. There's no way that one was 'immediate'.

 

[IrishBlueSince92]

It doesn't - it has to immediately leads to a goalscoring opportunity. There's no way that one was 'immediate'.

Liverpool had one ruled out away to Spurs in January when Firmino handled the ball on the halfway line, there were three more passes and then Salah scored

I’m sure there have been others where the handball comes well before the goal is scored that have been disallowed

 

[MillionMilesAway]

Liverpool had one ruled out away to Spurs in January when Firmino handled the ball on the halfway line, there were three more passes and then Salah scored

I’m sure there have been others where the handball comes well before the goal is scored that have been disallowed

Fair enough - I don't recall it, but was it accidental in the same way that Kane's was? If it's considered a deliberate act, then it's handball whenever it happens.

 

[crazyg]

Ref also spoke French throughout to the players although from memory the explanation for the red was part English and part French.!

Good moaning, Monsieur, carte rouge, you are iff!

 

[moomba]

Liverpool had one ruled out away to Spurs in January when Firmino handled the ball on the halfway line, there were three more passes and then Salah scored

I’m sure there have been others where the handball comes well before the goal is scored that have been disallowed

I think they changed the rule part way through the season (which is ridiculous).

Now has to be a handball leading to a goal or assist iirc.

 

[Trevor Morley's Tache]

I think they changed the rule part way through the season (which is ridiculous).

Now has to be a handball leading to a goal or assist iirc.

Changing the rule mid-competition is scandalous. It should NEVER happen, as there are always going to be teams who have an advantage/disadvantage over others meaning that the final outcome of the competition is potentially unfair.

 

[danielwood5]

The results of the FSA fan survey have been released, doesn't make good reading for PGMOL and the FA and Premier League should be concerned so it'll be interesting to see if anything changes because of it.

Survey: Fans say they will attend fewer games because of VAR - Football Supporters' Association

The results of our fan consultation on VAR are in, and they make for interesting reading: more than four out of ten fans say they will attend fewer games in future due to the effect VAR is having on the game.

thefsa.org.uk