VAR

[Arthur]

Just watching Wellington V Sydney in the Aussie A League.

They have (mid season which is a bit odd) rolled out video referees. They can rule on goals, penalty claims, red card decisions and mistaken identity.

Just been used for the first time. Sydney had a corner, ball came over and stuck the arm of the Wellington player. Referee didn't give it and the game carried on. At the next break in play got the video ref to take a look and the penalty was given. Took maybe 30 seconds for the video ref to make the call.

Interesting development. Not sure if I like it or not but in that instance it worked very well and caused little disruption to the game.

 

[Arthur]

[tweet]850638454341812224[/tweet]

 

[crasher]

I have to say I hate this idea. Refereeing is an art not a science and just because we can see on replays that they may have got something wrong isn't an excuse to break up the flow like this.

One reason why football is the greatest game of all is that it flows better than any other sport.

 

[Kazenga <3]

What would have happened if play had continued and Wellington went up the other end and slotted it?

 

[Arthur]

What would have happened if play had continued and Wellington went up the other end and slotted it?

I don't know actually I assume that it would be no goal and the game would have been restarted with the penalty kick at 0-0.

I don't know what would happen if there were two instances of the VAR's intervention within the same period of play. If incident one gets reviewed and the referee changes his mind then I can only assume incident two become irrelevant. However if incident one is upheld then can incident two become valid?

 

[Hammer15]

I'm generally in favour of VAR - particularly if it cuts down on dissent. But I think that we're going to have a season or two of teething troubles while FIFA and governing bodies figure out the best way to make use of it without ruining the game. Cricket went through a couple of troublesome years with technology but no-one can imagine cricket without technological help now.

 

[Timbo]

It's a no from me. What if it had been 5 minutes before the ball went out? What happens if that happens 5 times in a half? What happens if someone lays out another player after that 5 minutes? Does he then get away with it? Imagine Millwall vs Leeds, 5 minutes to go. Leeds think they should have a penalty, play goes on and 3 minutes later Millwall score. Then they have a look, take the goal away and award the penalty to Leeds. That'll work out well.

And then what about subjective decisions? Dunks handball last night for instance, could have gone either way. You get conceivably two referees who would never agree about it after looking at it for a week.

 

[AmexRuislip]

Bundesliga fans want VAR testing axed

Bundesliga fans want VAR testing axed immediately as video chief is replaced amid allegations of match-fixing.

More.....

Allegedly it does happen in Germany!

 

[Arthur]

VAR in the A League game yesterday didn't work very well at all.

Ref gave a pen for WSW but it took a good 2 or 3 minutes for the kick to be taken. No one seemed to know why. The commentators seem to think the ref booked the wrong player. But it never really got cleared up. The system would be much better if it worked like it does in Cricket/Rugby and you can hear what the video official is saying. WSW ended up missing the penalty.

 

[GreersElbow]

I got excited then, I thought this was about Value at Risk....

 

[Mellotron]

Saw it at work (and working) in a Belgian Prem game on Sunday (was in Gent for my bro's stag do).

Clear handball in the build up to a goal - ref totally unsighted due to players in the way but half the stadium could see it plain as day. Whilst the players were celebrating the goal, the ref went straight over to the video replay.

Goal disallowed, correctly. The amount of time the players would've surrounded the referee complaining would've possibly been even longer than it took him to jog over to the screen and watch a quick replay, so disruption of flow was absolutely not an issue in this instance.

Also, one of the main arguments is that it will undermine the ref's authority - this did EXACTLY the opposite in the eyes of the fans. Huge respect to the ref for taking another look and acknowledging that - as a human - he made a human error.

 

[Brighton Mod]

Sunnybill Williams would not have been sent off without the VAR, this was flagged by the VAR speaking with the referee on his earpiece. It caused minimal interference with the game and the rules of the game were adhered to. Its a no brainer to me, too many dinosaurs in football!