[Football] VAR April 2023 Poll - Fit for Purpose?

[Triggaaar]

Nope, most definately not fit for purpose. Keep goal line technology, that's the one good thing to come out of it, but give all the other decisions back to the on pitch referee. It wasn't broken before, so why the need to try and fix it?

Because it was broken before.

 

[Dave Fishwick]

Keep VAR
They have been trialling referees explaining their decision once having been called over to the monitor, should roll that out in the Prem

we still need it for the real howlers and I don't believe in any big club bias

 

[London Irish]

We are never going back to the days when you couldn't type the name of a certain referee into NSC because we were so aggrieved at decisions. So reforming VAR is the only realistic option, binning it isn't a credible real world discussion

 

[warmleyseagull]

VAR is potentially fit for purpose. The people manning it and officiating games are not.

Exactly this. OP poll is binary and the choice is not. VAR at first became discredited because it overruled on field decisions too easily and often for slight things; now it has swung too far the other way. 'Clear and obvious' appears to be too high a barrier at times, though God knows how the foul on Mitoma didn't pass as clear and obvious.

 

[London Irish]

Because it was broken before.

The Golden Age-ism we have from the anti VAR crowd is incredible. This board was frequently paralysed by reactions to ref decisions

 

[Neville's Breakfast]

Officials that were more accurate in making correct decisions. Simple

How though ?

 

[Springal]

How though ?

Be more like the World Cup, euros, champions league etc

 

[Neville's Breakfast]

The Golden Age-ism we have from the anti VAR crowd is incredible. This board was frequently paralysed by reactions to ref decisions

That’s a very cheap shot. I haven’t seen one ‘golden age-ism’ post on here. You seem to have not understood the central point from the people arguing against the use of VAR that football decision making is subjective so this utopia of ‘correct’ and ‘consistent’ decision making doesn’t and cannot exist. @Guinness Boy posted a very interesting Guardian article a few weeks ago which examined this in a lot of depth and for which your post is a pretty inadequate response. Perhaps he will post it again for you to have a read ?

 

[Neville's Breakfast]

Be more like the World Cup, euros, champions league etc

How, specifically ? Sorry, I don’t mean to put you on the spot and I know you aren’t responsible for it but I just don’t know how a subjective game can be refereed with the objectivity hurdle set this high.

 

[Weststander]

View attachment 159507

Genuine

 

[Weststander]

The Golden Age-ism we have from the anti VAR crowd is incredible. This board was frequently paralysed by reactions to ref decisions

Any non home win against the top 6 (or bizarrely Newcastle for some strange reason? Jealousy because they win the 2016/17 title), pre VAR, was always down to a corrupt ref. Apparently.

 

[Triggaaar]

The Golden Age-ism we have from the anti VAR crowd is incredible. This board was frequently paralysed by reactions to ref decisions

Yes, and that's not for one second saying that the current VAR is a good thing, because it's being implemented so poorly.

 

[Harry Wilson's tackle]

What would this improvement look like ?

Discussed ad nauseam.

 

[Guinness Boy]

The Golden Age-ism we have from the anti VAR crowd is incredible. This board was frequently paralysed by reactions to ref decisions

Nonsense.

VAR was supposed to fix the problems that clearly existed. It hasn’t done that and it’s made the fan experience worse to boot. That’s literally the point of the thread

 

[Neville's Breakfast]

Discussed ad nauseam.

The only concrete suggestion I have seen is sack people and hire replacements. That idea is never accompanied by any idea about who these people are and how exactly they will make it better.

 

[Kinky Gerbil]

The only concrete suggestion I have seen is sack people and hire replacements. That idea is never accompanied by any idea about who these people are and how exactly they will make it better.

The ideas are always

1. Sack everyone
2. Change the rules to fit var
3. Allow leniency on offsides, which is black and white
4. Have a timer, which makes VAR pointless anyway as it shouldn't matter how long it takes

 

[Barry Izbak]

Of course not

 

[Guinness Boy]

That’s a very cheap shot. I haven’t seen one ‘golden age-ism’ post on here. You seem to have not understood the central point from the people arguing against the use of VAR that football decision making is subjective so this utopia of ‘correct’ and ‘consistent’ decision making doesn’t and cannot exist. @Guinness Boy posted a very interesting Guardian article a few weeks ago which examined this in a lot of depth and for which your post is a pretty inadequate response. Perhaps he will post it again for you to have a read ?

Here you go

[Football] - Guardian Long Read - Refereeing, the Impossible Job

https://www.theguardian.com/football/2023/mar/21/inside-world-premier-league-football-referees-pgmol-howard-webb-andre-marriner-darren-england?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other Great read this if you’ve got the time. Includes Andre Marriner admitting to abusing the ref of his son’s under 9 game and, at...

www.northstandchat.com

 

[Harry Wilson's tackle]

The only concrete suggestion I have seen is sack people and hire replacements. That idea is never accompanied by any idea about who these people are and how exactly they will make it better.

I have written endlessly about changing the rubric:

1. transferring the final VAR decision to the VAR ref instead of VAR 'helping' the onfield ref when the man with the cameras spots something the ref has got wrong;
2. restricting VAR involvement only to offside where a goal is scored, penalties, and red cards;
3. insisting that when it is clear a player is offside the lino should flag - flagging later is absurd since if the lino was unsure he shouldn't flag at all;
4. introducing a 20 second rule (or a 40 second rule) whereby if VAR can't see the ref was wrong then VAR shuts up;
5. insisting the on-field ref actually makes decisions rather than wait for VAR - if the decision is wrong and VAR can see it is wrong VAR can overrule.
6. And the clear blue daylight rule for offsides, with the caveat that bits of the body you can't score with can't be offside. I might also bring in mandatory shoulder line markings on shirts to help the camera on iffy offside decisions - with the 20 or 40 second rule helping focus minds

It really isn't complicated. And as stated it has been discussed on here ad nauseam.

 

[Weststander]

I have written endlessly about changing the rubric:

1. transferring the final VAR decision to the VAR ref instead of VAR 'helping' the onfield ref when the man with the cameras spots something the ref has got wrong;
2. restricting VAR involvement only to offside where a goal is scored, penalties, and red cards;
3. insisting that when it is clear a player is offside the lino should flag - flagging later is absurd since if the lino was unsure he shouldn't flag at all;
4. introducing a 20 second rule (or a 40 second rule) whereby if VAR can't see the ref was wrong then VAR shuts up;
5. insisting the on-field ref actually makes decisions rather than wait for VAR - if the decision is wrong and VAR can see it is wrong VAR can overrule.
6. And the clear blue daylight rule for offsides, with the caveat that bits of the body you can't score with can't be offside. I might also bring in mandatory shoulder line markings on shirts to help the camera on iffy offside decisions - with the 20 or 40 second rule helping focus minds

It really isn't complicated. And as stated it has been discussed on here ad nauseam.

1, 2, 3, 6 totally agree.