Regardless of whether VAR is being used to attempt to manipulate certain match outcomes or not, we need to put to bed this ridiculous “why bring in VAR at all” debate point.
Because they had to bring it in. They had held out longer than every other major sport in the world (in some cases, literally decades after video review was adopted elsewhere; and when I say “they” I mean FIFA, that great bastion of transparency and incorruptibility).
This was not a matter of “they could have just not brought it in”. That was not an option. There was far too much pressure from every conceivable direction. At that point, *not* bringing it in would have caused more suspicion and eventual scrutiny than bringing it in.
And one of the main arguments for it very likely being used as a tool for attempted manipulation—apart from the many dubious (non)decisions across seasons—is the way they chose to design and implement the system when they finally did bring it in. That is, in one of the least transparent, most difficult to scrutinise ways possible.
They’ve even made it *less* transparent this year in the PL.
So, again, can we not stop asking that stupid question, as if football could have legitimately held out indefinitely as the only major sport on earth without video review, at a time where nearly every person has a HD camera in their pocket and/or access to a global network of HD cameras at their fingertips?
