[Football] How Do We Get Rid Of VAR?

[big nuts]

I don’t see the problem with the late flag and confirmation or otherwise by VAR. A player being offside doesn’t suddenly, make the game much more dangerous and isn’t going to make an injury any more likely than any normal stage of play.

My point is more around if you lose VAR which I would support, as its added nothing to the game, then this incident may well not have happened.

The linesman has done the right thing, implementing the current rules, but football without VAR is so much better.

 

[blue-shifted]

I very much doubt there is any intention to discuss getting rid of VAR, more to see how it can be improved. Best way will be to get better refs watching the videos!!

Unfortunately ... and incredibly ... there isn't another pool of better refs they could just choose to bring in

 

[Worried Man Blues]

I very much doubt there is any intention to discuss getting rid of VAR, more to see how it can be improved. Best way will be to get better refs watching the videos!!

Which is why it is supposed to be only clear and obvious so even those dimwits can't get it wrong!

 

[Johnny RoastBeef]

I'm not sure this will stop the assistant refs not flagging, but there are moves afoot to use semi automated technology to speed up offside decisions.

https://www.espn.co.uk/football/fif...fside-var-tech-to-go-into-development-in-2021

 

[Harry Wilson's tackle]

It would make better sense to press the fools (referees association in cahoots with the league?) who run the game to fix the rules and the rubric. VAR is going nowhere and it's getting boring hearing people droning on about the game being ruined, and VAR being responsible for the entirety of the current shitness of football.

The real problem with football is the referees, who are like the philosophers in Hitch Hikers' Guide to the Galaxy. They are happily employed seeking the answer to the meaning of life, the universe and everything, and then a machine is built that gives them the answer so they fear they are out of a job. The solution? Change the question. The referees have stitched everything up so we are now constantly asking 'what is the question?' (what is it we want VAR to tell us?). Referees have appointed themselves as the people who are in charge of asking what it is that we want VAR to tell us. Think about that.

And so referees can happily pontificate, tweaking the rubric forever more. Whereas.... they should **** off and use the machine to answer a set of proper questions such as 'was there clear blue daylight', and to provide an unequivocal decision when the referee ****s up without pondering whether it could be viewed to be not clear and obvious and 'would you like to have another look, mate?' FFS. And do it in 20 seconds or give up and let the referee's original decision stand. How simple is that? But no....talk about taking perfectly good tec and setting it up to fail.

Oh, and the injury to the keeper was not because of VAR. If it could have been avoided had the offside been called then it is the fault of the lino and the current ****ish interpretation of the rules, with 'meeting the important needs of VAR' a bloody lie of an excuse.

 

[Cowfold Seagull]

I'm not sure this will stop the assistant refs not flagging, but there are moves afoot to use semi automated technology to speed up offside decisions.

https://www.espn.co.uk/football/fif...fside-var-tech-to-go-into-development-in-2021

Give it time, and absolutely every decision will be made from Bletchley Park. The only thing that on field referees will do is keep order on the pitch . . . or try to.

 

[schmunk]

Give it time, and absolutely every decision will be made from Bletchley Park.

That's an Enigmatic suggestion...

 

[blue-shifted]

That's an Enigmatic suggestion...

Even those fellas would have a job trying to decode Lee Mason's thought processes.

I reckon they'd just be like .... "you know what, this is impossible ... let's give up"

 

[father_and_son]

It would make better sense to press the fools (referees association in cahoots with the league?) who run the game to fix the rules and the rubric. VAR is going nowhere and it's getting boring hearing people droning on about the game being ruined, and VAR being responsible for the entirety of the current shitness of football.

The real problem with football is the referees, who are like the philosophers in Hitch Hikers' Guide to the Galaxy. They are happily employed seeking the answer to the meaning of life, the universe and everything, and then a machine is built that gives them the answer so they fear they are out of a job. The solution? Change the question. The referees have stitched everything up so we are now constantly asking 'what is the question?' (what is it we want VAR to tell us?). Referees have appointed themselves as the people who are in charge of asking what it is that we want VAR to tell us. Think about that.

And so referees can happily pontificate, tweaking the rubric forever more. Whereas.... they should **** off and use the machine to answer a set of proper questions such as 'was there clear blue daylight', and to provide an unequivocal decision when the referee ****s up without pondering whether it could be viewed to be not clear and obvious and 'would you like to have another look, mate?' FFS. And do it in 20 seconds or give up and let the referee's original decision stand. How simple is that? But no....talk about taking perfectly good tec and setting it up to fail.

Oh, and the injury to the keeper was not because of VAR. If it could have been avoided had the offside been called then it is the fault of the lino and the current ****ish interpretation of the rules, with 'meeting the important needs of VAR' a bloody lie of an excuse.

Best. Response. Ever.
If only the FA read would this things may actually improve!
(But of course they won't... If there isn't a problem, we don't need a team of highly paid people looking into the problem!)

 

[blue-shifted]

It would make better sense to press the fools (referees association in cahoots with the league?) who run the game to fix the rules and the rubric. VAR is going nowhere and it's getting boring hearing people droning on about the game being ruined, and VAR being responsible for the entirety of the current shitness of football.

The real problem with football is the referees, who are like the philosophers in Hitch Hikers' Guide to the Galaxy. They are happily employed seeking the answer to the meaning of life, the universe and everything, and then a machine is built that gives them the answer so they fear they are out of a job. The solution? Change the question. The referees have stitched everything up so we are now constantly asking 'what is the question?' (what is it we want VAR to tell us?). Referees have appointed themselves as the people who are in charge of asking what it is that we want VAR to tell us. Think about that.

And so referees can happily pontificate, tweaking the rubric forever more. Whereas.... they should **** off and use the machine to answer a set of proper questions such as 'was there clear blue daylight', and to provide an unequivocal decision when the referee ****s up without pondering whether it could be viewed to be not clear and obvious and 'would you like to have another look, mate?' FFS. And do it in 20 seconds or give up and let the referee's original decision stand. How simple is that? But no....talk about taking perfectly good tec and setting it up to fail.

Oh, and the injury to the keeper was not because of VAR. If it could have been avoided had the offside been called then it is the fault of the lino and the current ****ish interpretation of the rules, with 'meeting the important needs of VAR' a bloody lie of an excuse.

But the current interpretation exists only because of VAR?

And disagree with most of what you say. It's not inevitable. If enough paying public say they want it gone, it will be gone. Fans just need to speak in a clearer voice ... and not go silent on it when a VAR decision benefits their team.

 

[pasty]

Fans just need to speak in a clearer voice ... and not go silent on it when a VAR decision benefits their team.

A full 90 minutes of the entire crowd at every live televised match singing "VAR is ****ing shit" should do it

 

[Mellotron]

I don't buy this "Its not VAR - its the way its being implemented" line. If you have it, you have to use it to its full accuracy, otherwise you just introduce more subjectivity into it. The "clear and obvious" thing is rubbish. If its clear and obvious, you don't need VAR at all.

Clear and obvious is easy when you have 40 cameras. Not for one human ref. See Thierry Henry's handball against Ireland - that needed VAR, didn't it?

The problem is with the massive cost of VAR, they want to use it far, far, far, far more than it should be. It should be used about once every 10 games, for massive howlers. Not minute detail stuff. If it was actually used for clear and obvious, it would improve the game. IMO.

 

[blue-shifted]

A full 90 minutes of the entire crowd at every live televised match singing "VAR is ****ing shit" should do it

This is the sort of thing I had in mind.

Far easier to brush the dislike of VAR under the carpet when there's no fans at grounds.

I genuinely believe the great majority of match going fans don't want it. The acid test though is whether you can get people to sing f*** VAR when it's just overturned an opposition penalty or something.

 

[drew]

Give it time, and absolutely every decision will be made from Bletchley Park. The only thing that on field referees will do is keep order on the pitch . . . or try to.

Does that mean the decisions by VAR will be even more undecipherable than the ones from Stockley Pk?

 

[dejavuatbtn]

Does that mean the decisions by VAR will be even more undecipherable than the ones from Stockley Pk?

It’s to do with randomly selected outcomes.

 

[southstandandy]

But if every 'offside' possibility is going to be checked by VAR why have the linesmen or women in the first place?

 

[drew]

VAR isn't going anywhere. What they need to do is get rid of the 'clear and obvious' crap. A mistake is a mistake. Let VAR make a decision re handball and mistaken identity. For penalties from a foul, if there is doubt the ref should be at the monitor straight away rather than wait for 5 or 6 viewings. As for offside, I don't agree with the daylight rule, it's never been like that, but make it clear it's part of the torso, not a hand or a foot and get rid of the stupid lines. VAR looks and from that they should make the call.

Oh, and finally, sack Mike Riley and bring the control of professional referees back under the FA rather than the PGMOL.

 

[GT49er]

Clear and obvious is easy when you have 40 cameras. Not for one human ref. See Thierry Henry's handball against Ireland - that needed VAR, didn't it?

The problem is with the massive cost of VAR, they want to use it far, far, far, far more than it should be. It should be used about once every 10 games, for massive howlers. Not minute detail stuff. If it was actually used for clear and obvious, it would improve the game. IMO.

Yes, the whole problem is that they have allowed the VAR to decide (wrongly) what is 'clear and obvious'. If they just stuck to checking out what looks like a clear and obvious error, and not examining every decision in minute detail trying to find something wrong with it - clear and obvious or not.

Getting rid of it? Difficult - it would only happen if overwhelming numbers cancelled their Sky, BT and NowTV subscriptions, and there were mass walk-outs from grounds every time a VAR decision held up the game for more than a minute (with the message that VAR is **** being loudly and clearly vocalised!) And sadly, that ain't going to happen.

 

[Super Steve Earle]

This is the sort of thing I had in mind.

Far easier to brush the dislike of VAR under the carpet when there's no fans at grounds.

I genuinely believe the great majority of match going fans don't want it. The acid test though is whether you can get people to sing f*** VAR when it's just overturned an opposition penalty or something.

As one of an alleged minority of match going fans, I do want it. I see it mostly as a safety net against the cheats and divers in the game. Sure, it could do with a few tweaks, but you can bet your life that without it, we'd have more decisions against us at the likes of Anfield, Old Trafford and even Villa Park where Smith has so many divers in his team, they have made it in to an art form. I cheer like a loon for every goal we score and if it gets ruled for some infringement or other, well that's always been the case. I just prefer to keep VAR as my security blanket. It's got a few holes in it, but it stops the Maguires and Kanes of this world from tumbling their giant frames at every 'contact'.

 

[METALMICKY]

A full 90 minutes of the entire crowd at every live televised match singing "VAR is ****ing shit" should do it

Curiously it might just take something like like that. However, critically you need to omit the F word or not everyone will join in and/or it will be dismissed as just a bunch of foul mouthed yobs sounding off. Alternatively, someone needs to come up with a more creative protest that will somehow effect the TV coverage.

For me VAR is the classic example of a terrible cure for a disease that didn't actually exist. Or perhaps simply ' if it isn't broke, don't fix it '! I'm struggling to recall why it was ever introduced? Had we had a swathe of atrocious decisions in high profile games?