VAR Discussion Thread | 2024/25

[mexico1970]

There are some very questionable decisions made by VAR considering they get to look at the situations over and over again.

 

[Gazza]

There are some very questionable decisions made by VAR considering they get to look at the situations over and over again.

I think they talk themselves down a hole instead of just stepping back for a second and thinking - was that OK or not.

 

[KentBlue]

The game is almost unwatchable these days.

It's been like that for me for years. Apart from City I just don't have an interest in the sport anymore. I will always follow City and my love for the club will never ever change - habits of a lifetime and all that. But the game that I cut my teeth on many many years ago is not the same now. The old 'jumpers for goalposts' days are but mere memories from a bygone age, the same of which can be said for any aspect of life: sport, art, fashion etc. Everything changes over time and many of us -particularly us old codgers- tend to see our past through whatever coloured glasses we choose, but there is some merit in this. Football has changed over the years and is now a part of a global franchise: a better metaphor perhaps would be that years and years ago we had chip shops littered around town, but they weren't just chip shops, they were OUR chip shops. Places we would see family members, neighbours, school friends etc. There was a sense of community about your local chip shop. But now we have McDonalds, KFC, Burger Bar or whatever: fast food, processed and sterile - Americanised.

I can go and see a game nowadays and not see one familiar face in the crowd, not one human being that I'd recognise as a friend or neighbour, hence no cameraderie, no communal sense of belonging. The people that you do see around you are all buried in a sea of mobile phones anyway, so inevitably conversation has dried up and no one talks to anyone anymore. In the off chance that you do happen to see a familiar face you simply exchange a nod of recognition and go back to your iPhone to check what the post office opening times are in Kuala Lumpur or something.

The world is changing on a day to day basis, but because of my love of football I tend to only see the changes that affect me personally, and the sport I have loved all my life is not the sport it once was, thus my lack of enthusiasm for the direction it is going in.

 

[Gorton_Tubster]

Guess the reason


Its not that VAR has made a mistake. Its that they have all that video and replays and still get it wrong.

 

[mexico1970]

Guess the reason


Its not that VAR has made a mistake. Its that they have all that video and replays and still get it wrong.

Stupid or inept and there are more than one official looking at it. Makes yoiu wonder how people come to the conclusion it's bent.

 

[johnnytapia]

And it effects the outcome of too many games with decisions that don't make any sense. The whole thing needs re-thinking, imho.

Doesn’t need rethinking. Just needs fucking off. Let the rugby crowds wank themselves into a stupor listening to the ref whilst we go back to being able to celebrate goals properly.

 

[johnnytapia]

Until officials can do it properly it is flawed, and that will never happen.

Goal line tech, automated offside is all we need, if it reads a goal or a player off it pings to the watch, remove human interaction.
or
go old school allow human error without the fannying about

“Go old school allow human error without the fannying about”
This is what nearly every fan wants. It’s how the game was for nearly 200 years. Then we got this sack of unwanted shit.

 

[johnnytapia]

:) I don't have much sympathy for the lawmakers as you can probably tell. They are going about everything the wrong way: making more and more detailed laws to cover every eventuality, but they never will. Whether we are talking on-field rules or off-field rules - it's a hopeless project.

This middle ground of hugely subjective rules reviewed twice by different people is a nonsense. And it always will be. Either leave simple, subjective rules to the referee's discretion or have every rule a clear binary decision with the technology in place to determine the outcome without error. You can guess which one I favour.

And, personally, I wouldn't care if someone scores against City after the ball accidentally hits his hand. Or his head, or his bollocks. If it's accidental, live with it. Leave it to the referee to see that. If it's so slight that he can't see it then nobody should care apart from anal-ysts who need bullshit to create "entertainment" around. If the referee sees it and thinks it's accidental then leave it alone. If the referee thinks it's accidental but it was clearly deliberate on tenth viewing of a replay then ban the fucker for three weeks. He won't do it again. Just leave the beautiful game alone for Christ's sake.

Sorry for the rant, but this stuff makes my blood boil. I am very nearly done with it. The game is almost unwatchable these days.

It’s watchable for the people with the attention span of a Mayfly.

 

[johnnytapia]

Guess the reason


Its not that VAR has made a mistake. Its that they have all that video and replays and still get it wrong.

“It’s progress and it’s what everyone has been asking for for over 20 years.”
And here’s some footage from an Australian rugby game to prove how brilliant it is…

 

[johnnytapia]

I was watching our 93:20 game last night and it made me think / shudder just how different the celebrations would have been with VAR. How fucking shit it has become that we’ll never get to truly celebrate because of this wank thing.
Checking double checking triple checking, hang on, his toe might have been in front of the line when he took the throw in.
But hey, it works brilliantly at Edgbaston. And even better at The Stoop.

 

[.db.]

Another VAR correct decision for the stats

You are obviously pretending to not understand the point on purpose because you can’t be that dense. But I’ll say it again… it’s not the technology that’s the problem, it’s the standard of officials. Football officials are appallingly bad, video technology has helped them get more decisions right than they did before video technology existed but they’re still shite officials so will still get things wrong even with video replays to help them.

It’s the standard of officials in this sport we should be demanding improves.

 

[halfcenturyup]

It’s watchable for the people with the attention span of a Mayfly.

Sorry. What did you say?

:)

 

[johnnytapia]

You are obviously pretending to not understand the point on purpose because you can’t be that dense. But I’ll say it again… it’s not the technology that’s the problem, it’s the standard of officials. Football officials are appallingly bad, VAR has helped them get more decisions right than they did before VAR existed but they’re still shite officials so will still get things wrong even with video replays to help them.

It’s the standard of officials in this sport we should be demanding improves.

No VAR, that goal stands and the fans rightly celebrate.
You keep babbling in about it getting more decisions right, yet have zero evidence to back that up. I’ll give you a chance:
show me, with verified data, there were fewer refereeing mistakes made in the City matches I watched between 2020-2025 compared to those I watched between 1980-1985. I’ll give you as long as you’d like to do this. In the meantime, if you’ve any top VAR footage from Fijian rugby that you want to share, please do.

 

[Gordyola]

You are obviously pretending to not understand the point on purpose because you can’t be that dense. But I’ll say it again… it’s not the technology that’s the problem, it’s the standard of officials. Football officials are appallingly bad, video technology has helped them get more decisions right than they did before video technology existed but they’re still shite officials so will still get things wrong even with video replays to help them.

It’s the standard of officials in this sport we should be demanding improves.

I fully understand your point about the quality of the officials
You claimed that they now get more right than wrong quoting stats, no source confirmed.
You claimed there was less controversy since the introduction of VAR

I disagree with the premise that things have improved and that there is less controversy

My view is that there are just as many wrong decisions and that the refs rely on VAR as a crutch, its even worse now as there are more of them looking and they have the opportunity to get things right

Consequently there is more controversy, look at the incidents this week and its not untypical

The laws of the game have been adjusted to help get decisions right, to suit VAR trying to remove the subjectivity only to make things worse, handball being one example.

Having VAR has not improved things but substantially made it worse and crucially much worse for the stadium spectator

If you believe otherwise you must be Howard Webb or David Ellery

 

[.db.]

No VAR, that goal stands and the fans rightly celebrate.
You keep babbling in about it getting more decisions right, yet have zero evidence to back that up. I’ll give you a chance:
show me, with verified data, there were fewer refereeing mistakes made in the City matches I watched between 2020-2025 compared to those I watched between 1980-1985. I’ll give you as long as you’d like to do this. In the meantime, if you’ve any top VAR footage from Fijian rugby that you want to share, please do.

VAR: Premier League claims 96 per cent of referee decisions are correct - so what is future of technology in football?

The Premier League claim the “majority” of supporters are in favour of VAR and the technology has led to a 14 per cent increase in correct decisions; Sky Sports senior reporter Rob Dorsett sits down with Tony Scholes to discuss VAR’s performance and ideas for improvement

www.skysports.com

VAR: Report shows technology has been 98.9% accurate in decision-making

The video assistant referee system has been accurate in 98.9% of decisions during its trial, says the International Football Association Board.

www.bbc.co.uk

Here’s the evidence of what I’ve said about the Premier Lesgue and IFAB’s findings. You know, the ones you just said i had ‘zero evidence’ of.

You will have to ring or email City directly for your ridiculous demands of wanting specific stats on City in the General Football Forum when talking generally about football when I’ve never mentioned decisions solely in City games not claimed ever to have any data on referee decisions in City games.

 

[johnnytapia]

VAR: Premier League claims 96 per cent of referee decisions are correct - so what is future of technology in football?

The Premier League claim the “majority” of supporters are in favour of VAR and the technology has led to a 14 per cent increase in correct decisions; Sky Sports senior reporter Rob Dorsett sits down with Tony Scholes to discuss VAR’s performance and ideas for improvement

www.skysports.com

VAR: Report shows technology has been 98.9% accurate in decision-making

The video assistant referee system has been accurate in 98.9% of decisions during its trial, says the International Football Association Board.

www.bbc.co.uk

Here’s the evidence of what I’ve said about the Premier Lesgue and IFAB’s findings. You know, the ones you just said i had ‘zero evidence’ of.

You will have to ring or email City directly for your ridiculous demands of wanting stats on City in the General Football Forum when talking generally about football when I’ve never mentioned decisions solely in City games.

I have nothing left to say on the above except this absolute beaut:

“The details of that survey, conducted by the Premier League themselves, have not been made public”

 

[.db.]

I have nothing left to say on the above except this absolute beaut:

“The details of that survey, conducted by the Premier League themselves, have not been made public”

So you’ve been proven wrong but are hanging onto sentence about a survey on whether fans are in favour of or against VAR to deflect from the data on VAR that proves you wrong? You do know that sentence is not about the investigation done into the increase of correct decisions, don’t you?

What about ‘A report, external from football's lawmakers said VAR was used in 804 competitive matches in more than 20 competitions. It said the technology increased the accuracy of decisions that can be reviewed from 93% to 98.9%’?

 

[Kippax77]

Guess the reason


Its not that VAR has made a mistake. Its that they have all that video and replays and still get it wrong.

Compare with Salah last week going for the ball with his raised hand..... yet VAR couldn't fing conclusive evidence.
Fuckin bent shite

 

[Gorton_Tubster]

VAR: Premier League claims 96 per cent of referee decisions are correct - so what is future of technology in football?

The Premier League claim the “majority” of supporters are in favour of VAR and the technology has led to a 14 per cent increase in correct decisions; Sky Sports senior reporter Rob Dorsett sits down with Tony Scholes to discuss VAR’s performance and ideas for improvement

www.skysports.com

VAR: Report shows technology has been 98.9% accurate in decision-making

The video assistant referee system has been accurate in 98.9% of decisions during its trial, says the International Football Association Board.

www.bbc.co.uk

Here’s the evidence of what I’ve said about the Premier Lesgue and IFAB’s findings. You know, the ones you just said i had ‘zero evidence’ of.

You will have to ring or email City directly for your ridiculous demands of wanting specific stats on City in the General Football Forum when talking generally about football when I’ve never mentioned decisions solely in City games not claimed ever to have any data on referee decisions in City games.

The people who run VAR and certify it around the world say it works just fine? LOL.

Meanwhile the fans hate it, I can find some stats for that.

There's a lot of money involved in VAR, all the training, the licenses, the hardware. There'll be performance curves to meet, targets, bonuses for successful delivery. Cointracts with the owners of the hardware. They are NEVER going to let it go easily. Meanwhile the fans, pundits, sports journo's, even footballers themselves hate it.

Its Infantino's baby I believe, and he is a shister with his fingers in everyones pies. I bet there's some shady deal that he is profitting from too.

 

[johnnytapia]

So you’ve been proven wrong but are hanging onto sentence about a survey on whether fans are in favour of or against VAR to deflect from the data on VAR that proves you wrong? You do know that sentence is not about the investigation done into the increase of correct decisions, don’t you?

What about ‘A report, external from football's lawmakers said VAR was used in 804 competitive matches in more than 20 competitions. It said the technology increased the accuracy of decisions that can be reviewed from 93% to 98.9%’?

Proven wrong? Only in your muddled head.