Lovebitesandeveryfing
Well-Known Member
O.K. As it stands, and as it has been applied this season, it has been a disaster.
I'm a balanced enough individual not to have enjoyed it when a rank injustice has been done to another team on the pitch in our favour (there have been precious little of that sort, I know, but there have in fact been one or two) and every time we have suffered an injustice it's like a burn the pain of which lives on for months. That second CL game last season against Tottenham still hurts, as does the early PL game against them this season.
Above all, this conclusion is unavoidable: nothing demonstrates the yawning gulf, the extreme degree of alienation between the administrators who run the game, who get their complimentary seats without giving it a thought and have not had to pay to go to a match for years, if ever, and the match-going fan who pays his or her hard-earned bucks through the turnstiles, than the fact that they have destroyed, at one fell swoop, one of the most spontaneous joys that he or she can have in life — celebrating, with everything you've got, all your passion, nothing held back, a beautiful goal that's just been scored by your team! Last night, in the last minute, I was whooping with delight at that last goal. 5-0 just sounds really, really good. A complete, unambiguous spanking. Stupid of me, because that delight was then taken away from me. It's almost as if, when you're a child, an adult offers a present to you with one hand, and then says, “Wait a minute, I've had second thoughts”, and hides it behind his back.
It is taking away the fundamental pleasures of the game. And this has been the experience of thousands of fans up and down the country, at many clubs. Not just ours.
VAR will not be abandoned, I suppose. But it must be radically rethought in the way it's applied before next season. Above it, it must be used much more selectively, much more sparingly. It's the future of the game that is at stake. Without the spontaneous pleasure that we, the fans, are entitled to, the game is a shadow of itself.
Edit: sorry mods, should probably be merged with other thread. Although my point is a slightly different one.
I'm a balanced enough individual not to have enjoyed it when a rank injustice has been done to another team on the pitch in our favour (there have been precious little of that sort, I know, but there have in fact been one or two) and every time we have suffered an injustice it's like a burn the pain of which lives on for months. That second CL game last season against Tottenham still hurts, as does the early PL game against them this season.
Above all, this conclusion is unavoidable: nothing demonstrates the yawning gulf, the extreme degree of alienation between the administrators who run the game, who get their complimentary seats without giving it a thought and have not had to pay to go to a match for years, if ever, and the match-going fan who pays his or her hard-earned bucks through the turnstiles, than the fact that they have destroyed, at one fell swoop, one of the most spontaneous joys that he or she can have in life — celebrating, with everything you've got, all your passion, nothing held back, a beautiful goal that's just been scored by your team! Last night, in the last minute, I was whooping with delight at that last goal. 5-0 just sounds really, really good. A complete, unambiguous spanking. Stupid of me, because that delight was then taken away from me. It's almost as if, when you're a child, an adult offers a present to you with one hand, and then says, “Wait a minute, I've had second thoughts”, and hides it behind his back.
It is taking away the fundamental pleasures of the game. And this has been the experience of thousands of fans up and down the country, at many clubs. Not just ours.
VAR will not be abandoned, I suppose. But it must be radically rethought in the way it's applied before next season. Above it, it must be used much more selectively, much more sparingly. It's the future of the game that is at stake. Without the spontaneous pleasure that we, the fans, are entitled to, the game is a shadow of itself.
Edit: sorry mods, should probably be merged with other thread. Although my point is a slightly different one.