[Football] "It's not VAR, it's the people running it"

[Worried Man Blues]

I'd like to see a fan of either team in with the VAR officials, just to make sure they don't miss anything, the risk is the VAR official will get lumped, oh well never mind.

 

[drew]

Now its here, its not going away. If it did every week would just be 'that mistake wouldn't have happened if we still had VAR'

It just needs to be used correctly and ideally transparently. PGMOL just hide and try to protect their officials, but it would actually help players, managers, fans and ultimately referees too if there was a little more openness in the process.

I agree. PGMOL don't seem to be accountable to anyone, they release ridiculous statements about decisions which quite often are factually wrong. Hopefully things will improve when Mike Riley leaves. A poor referee in my view, has run the PGMOL for far too long. Hopefully, Hooper will get it heading in the right direction.

EDIT: Apologies, only just got up. It is of course Howard Webb taking over, not Hooper!!!

 

[Neville's Breakfast]

But it's got nothing to do with technology. I think VAR should stay because our refs are so crap but it's the crap refs that are making bad decisions even when watching a reply. Offside is offside, they just need to agree which part of the body is relevant. The subjective part is about fouls however Welbz at Old Trafford should, in every officials mind, be a pen when looking at a replay or Cucurella's hair being pulled a foul and a red.

VAR was sold to us as improving decisions. Seems the goalposts have been moved in justification for it. If it has nothing to do with technology then what’s the point of the technology ? You think the refs are crap so why have more of them watching the tele and ruining the game ? What’s the point ?

 

[Neville's Breakfast]

I'd like to see a fan of either team in with the VAR officials, just to make sure they don't miss anything, the risk is the VAR official will get lumped, oh well never mind.

You HAVE to be joking
Have you ever been to a football match ?

 

[Springal]

It’ll improve when Mike Riley goes and Howard Webb takes over. Not sure if that’s January or next season

 

[cjd]

The major problem today, is not VAR ( which was very very poor yesterday ) , but the players.

They spend more time and energy cheating the officials, the paying public, their clubs and themselves than actually playing football with the skill they possess.

 

[beorhthelm]

seems the inconsistancy on offside cant be resolved. iirc we tried having linesmen keeping flag down until there's goal (or something), that was confusing and made them a bit redundant. thats Villa goal wasnt a VAR problem, the offside rule itself was the problem there, make for ambigous calls a linesman has got to try and judge. get the rule back to a simpler form and dont use VAR there, save it for the "obvious" errors it was intended to address.

 

[Greg Bobkin]

Not fit for purpose, not evaluated properly in the first place and causes more problems than it solves.

Get tae fack, VAR.

 

[drew]

VAR was sold to us as improving decisions. Seems the goalposts have been moved in justification for it. If it has nothing to do with technology then what’s the point of the technology ? You think the refs are crap so why have more of them watching the tele and ruining the game ? What’s the point ?

What exactly do you think the technology is? Other than cameras around the ground providing different views, the only other 'technology' is the lines for offside and they are pretty much consistently correct, albeit annoying. There's no 'technology' deciding penalties and red cards.

As for the point, we need to improve the referees, simple as that. That's down to the PGMOL.

 

[Swansman]

Offside calls will be AI-assisted in the Champions League and World Cup this season. Will be interesting to see how it works out, would guess we'll see in the PL next season. And IMO that is just the beginning... VAR will be outdated and redundant in a few years.

 

[One Teddy Maybank]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/62783142

Huge number of controversial / incorrect decisions again yesterday. Offside inconsistencies too over the last two game sets. Everton's goal not flagged but (correctly) given offside by VAR, Coutinho flagged when onside, rather than allowed to continue and play whistled dead so VAR could not correct it and, in our game, Undav not flagged when 10 yards off.

We still have controversy. We still have incorrect decisions. We still have managers blaming refs and sent to the stands. Nothing has been fixed yet fans can't celebrate a goal properly and are getting home from games later and later. Five minutes to award and take a penalty at Forest.

Keep goal line tech but as for VAR, get rid.

All of this.

it has removed some of the spontaneous emotion that a goal brings, as you immediately look to see if it’s being given/wait for kick off

 

[Swansman]

All of this.

it has removed some of the spontaneous emotion that a goal brings, as you immediately look to see if it’s being given/wait for kick off

Indeed. I would say for about 50% of the goals I get more nervous than happy. Not how it is supposed to be.

 

[de la zouch]

Put riverside Mike in charge and guess what….

We have an omnishambles

 

[Springal]

"It's not VAR, it's the people running it"

I did quite enjoy Danny Murphy advocating for ex-pros to be involved in VAR, while in the same show didn’t understand the ball going backwards to Coutihno for his off side,

 

[South Stand Bonfire]

Yes it is very interesting hearing the dialogue in rugby matches between ref and TMO. It helps people watching understand the thought process in making decisions. And crucially, other than pointing out things that the ref might had missed (foul play off the ball etc) the TMO receives the steer from the ref, i.e. the ref gives an onfield decision and asks the TMO to check.

In football, I think there should be referrals only if there is genuine doubt in the refs mind.

é.g. the lino didn't flag for offside but he looked off to me, can you check.

Or the lino did flag, but I'm not sure if he was off, please can you check.

Therefore only check for offside if ref and lino are not sure.

Similarly with fouls and penalties:

Ref gives onfield decision but might say to VAR, my view wasn't great, please can you confirm there was contact/inside the area etc.

Then I think VAR plays a much less invasive role, but a more supportive one.

The problem with your suggestion however is that it is so logical and sensible the FA would never support it!

 

[Springal]

The problem with your suggestion however is that it is so logical and sensible the FA would never support it!

Nothing to do with the FA. Premier League and PGMOL manage the implementation

 

[drew]

The major problem today, is not VAR ( which was very very poor yesterday ) , but the players.

They spend more time and energy cheating the officials, the paying public, their clubs and themselves than actually playing football with the skill they possess.

We would all like a bit more integrity from players but they weren't the reason why referees made poor decisions yesterday. Mendy stayed down when hardly touched but Moyes was right in that it should have stood. Newcastle had a goal disallowed which, on first viewing was the correct decision of a foul on the keeper but watching the replays, it was clear the Newcastle player was pushed by the Palace player into the keeper. Shirt pulling and pushing in the area has gone on for decades. Introduction of VAR should have resolved that but the refs still don't penalise it anywhere near as much as they should.

 

[drew]

I did quite enjoy Danny Murphy advocating for ex-pros to be involved in VAR, while in the same show didn’t understand the ball going backwards to Coutihno for his off side,

It doesn't matter if the ball is travelling backwards, if you are ahead of the ball and there is only one opposition player between you and the goal line then you are in an offside position. I think the problem was that when the ball was passed across from the right, Coutinho was onside. As the ball travelled across, the defender moved forward putting Coutinho in an offside position however, I think the Lino thought there was another touch of the ball at that point, which there wasn't. Coutinho rang round to pick up the ball and that's when the Lino signalled and the ref stupidly blew the whistle. Had there been a second touch of the ball in the middle by a Villa player then it would have been offside. Unfortunately, once the ref blew the whistle, Man City players stopped and VAR could not get involved.

It is bizarre how in some case they allow play to continue when it is blatantly offside, eg Undav, and on others they flag straight away. Against Utd, we had a case where there was a close call for Welbeck and the flag went up immediately yet a similar instance involving a Utd player was allowed to carry on.

 

[Simster]

I am still quite pro VAR because it works well in other countries, but don't understand why the people using it appear so utterly clueless. Sometimes it is like these people are doing their best to have it removed when it really should be a force for the good by now.

How the hell yesterday's two blatant goals were disallowed after VAR influence is beyond me. I am sorry but I feel the real problem is the lack of accountability of the people making the decisions. Pay the refs to ref full time and make them come out and explain their decisions post-match, and that includes the people controlling VAR. I'm quite sure accountability will reduce this nonsense

 

[Couldn't Be Hyypia]

You get the refs you deserve. With refs at lower levels being attacked, abused, sworn at, intimidated and thoroughly undermined, and even refs at the top level having to suffer abuse from managers and players, you cannot be surprised if the standard drops as the pool of young and then experienced referees declines. It will not get better unless there is root and branch change, but that won't happen (in football our society sadly)