[Football] The future of VAR in England

[The Albion Roar]

Once again, I've been asked to gauge opinion on a hot topic of the day. In this instance, the FSA would like some kind of figures and data regarding the future of VAR. They are only after a broad snapshot for now, but they'd like your headline opinion on it.

This isn't about what constitutes a foul, or a penalty, or handball, or full-time whistles. It's about the use of VAR.

You can answer as many as you see fit.

Thanks in advance...

 

[The Oldman]

Get rid.

 

[AK74]

Fúck VAR.

 

[MickyD]

Scrap it. Or take a leaf out of Tennis' book where each team gets a set number of challenges maybe...

 

[Deadly Danson]

Just need it for absolute shockers if the idiots can deal with that. Bin the rest of it - ruins everything about the game.

 

[Bold Seagull]

Once again, I've been asked to gauge opinion on a hot topic of the day. In this instance, the FSA would like some kind of figures and data regarding the future of VAR. They are only after a broad snapshot for now, but they'd like your headline opinion on it.

This isn't about what constitutes a foul, or a penalty, or handball, or full-time whistles. It's about the use of VAR.

You can answer as many as you see fit.

Thanks in advance...

The argument for me is what it does to the live experience. The game ceases to be thrilling as a love spectator sport if the most exciting moment, a goal, is under review constantly. The game is destroyed if we can't celebrate goals. The only thing that seems to work is goal line technology because it is instant, and even that showed it's not infallible.

 

[Guinness Boy]

Get rid. Absolutely ruining football.

 

[Mellotron]

Keep it FOR CLEAR AND OBVIOUS ERRORS ONLY - as was the idea in the first ****ing place. i.e. stuff like the Henry handball vs Ireland.

Anything that isn't clear and obvious can stay with the ref's onfield decision.

 

[Nathan]

Aren't we the team with the most VAR decisions overruled in our favour? As in goal given against us that were off side or handball etc?

The idea of VAR is good, but the people using it and making the decisions are ****ing it up too many times.

 

[Swansman]

Remove it. If kept, dont use it for anything related to the game itself - only things like randomly elbowing someone or spitting on them or whatever.

I think the horse is out of the toolshed or however the saying goes - if it was removed now it would take one weekend before people started moaning about mistakes and demanding it back. There is no turning back, unfortunately.

 

[SAC]

VAR is there to implement the laws of the game which is does quite well. Change the laws if necessary and limit the time it takes to make a decision.

 

[Hotchilidog]

When it was introduced I was in favour. I thought we'd rid ourselves of the Henry handballs, the two yards offsides and the punishment of divers. None of those things have been delivered. Handball and offside decisions are a joke, divers still throw themselves around happily, and what constitutes a foul is now in doubt. Human error is still very much part of the process, yet this is compounded by the time it takes to make a decision and even then with video evidence mistakes are still made.

VAR was brought in to deliver fairness and clean up controversy, it has FAILED to do so in a major way and has succeeded in sucking the joy out of the game at a time when won people need little excuse to lose interest in top flight football.

I'd rather stick with refs making human errors than put up with this crap anymore.

GET RID.

 

[Uh_huh_him]

Keep but change the laws to allow for the level of scrutiny now available.
i.e. when the laws were written it was based on what a linesman/referee was capable of seeing.
Now that this can be scrutinised, we need new direction to clarify what should be penalised due it gaining a genuine advantage from the player breaking the rule.

This should look to eliminate:
+ players claiming penalties when they are not being fouled (contact should not be enough)
+ Handballs that are not deliberate (defined as deliberate movement towards the ball or from making a larger body area)
+ Offsides against players with no part of their torso ahead of the last defender

However we should look to punish more of the dark arts, such as holding players/shirts at corners and players going to ground without sufficient force.

 

[Bodian]

Aren't we the team with the most VAR decisions overruled in our favour? As in goal given against us that were off side or handball etc?

This is a rather meaningless stat from last year, as it counts things like 'goals chalked off for offside that were so obviously offside that they would have been flagged in the old days (Arsenal)' and so on. The amount of points we actually 'gained' from VAR was minimal. And it didn't count things where, in many people's view, VAR should have overruled the ref but didn't - that is, it only looked at overturned decisions, not confirmed decisions. So, for instance, where the on-field ref didn't give a penalty, and VAR inexplicably didn't give it either - it wasn't logged.

So - no, we weren't really the team that benefitted most.

And anyway, the main issue with VAR at the moment is consistency - where something one week is given, and the next week it's not.

 

[Stat Brother]

Keep it FOR CLEAR AND OBVIOUS ERRORS ONLY - as was the idea in the first ****ing place. i.e. stuff like the Henry handball vs Ireland.

Anything that isn't clear and obvious can stay with the ref's onfield decision.

I can hear the media, press, managers and supporters now:-

'That was clearly a clear and obvious error, what's the point in having this technology and not using it?'.


It'll sound quite similar to what we used to have rammed down our throats:-

'The fans at home know it's offside and yet the only person who doesn't know is the referee, because he can't see what the rest of the planet can see, from 5 different angles in slo-mo'.


Although it will be completely different to what we have now:-

'Why is the referee going to look at the monitor, it's just so he can make it all about himself.
He's just looking at it from 5 different angles all in slo-mo'.




It's almost as if we don't know what we want, except moaning.

 

[The Albion Roar]

Scrap it. Or take a leaf out of Tennis' book where each team gets a set number of challenges maybe...

I've NEVER been in favour of the players having any say in the officiating of a game. Some of them like to think they are now.

The whole idea is that the referee is impartial and arbitrary. To have a match effectively refereed by consent is a slippery slope.

 

[Mellotron]

I can hear the media, press, managers and supporters now:-

'That was clearly a clear and obvious error, what's the point in having this technology and not using it?'.

It's almost as if we don't know what we want, except moaning.

Oh there will be debate whatever happens - would still be the correct way to proceed IMO.

I've always known exactly what I want though - supported it for clear and obvious errors only from the very start and that hasn't changed. Of course there will be some that fall right down the line of what is clear and obvious and what isn't - that's human nature.

But it would be nothing like what it's become.

 

[sydney]

just another excuse for the knob heads upstairs to ruin our fun .....**** it off , give us our game back ....!! Bamfords of side against %%%%%%% was a ****in joke.

 

[Stat Brother]

Oh there will be debate whatever happens - would still be the correct way to proceed IMO.

I've always known exactly what I want though - supported it for clear and obvious errors only from the very start and that hasn't changed. Of course there will be some that fall right down the line of what is clear and obvious and what isn't - that's human nature.

But it would be nothing like what it's become.

I'll hazard a guess it will be exactly like what it has become.


But the genie is now out of the bottle.
There is absolutely nothing now that can be done to get it back in.

Clear and obvious.
Stop clock decisions.
Umpires call.

Everything will be open to 'controversy' because those that make a living from football (not in football) must have controversy.

It's exactly how we got here now.
&
Exactly why nothing will change.

 

[blue-shifted]

Bin it

Drastically Increase post match punishments for blatant cheating
Mike up (and train and empower) the linos and 4th officials with each other. 4 of them should be able to spot anything blatantly wrong.