Just what is the point of VAR

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wadblade

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Having watched MOTD last night and seen all three penality decisions being utterly wrong
and which i believe most fans could tell in real time
what is the point of VAR?
 

"Clear and obvious" decisions

All three of the incorrect decisions last night were clear and obvious in real time let alone after numerous replays.

From a technical perspective it is not fit for purpose as we have seen numerous times this season with incorrect / dubious decisions that have gone against us. Compound this with incompetent officials both on the pitch and in the var booth and you are basically fucked.
 
I'd rather have the ref make decisions even if some are wrong, and not have the ridiculous waiting for goals to be allowed / disallowed. Ruins the elation of the goal. Previously glancing at the linesman or ref at the instant of the goal was enough.
I hate it.

Not only that, but it's much easier to sympathise with a ref who has made an understandable balls-up in real time, it's far harder to support them once they've asked their mates, had a look at a monitor and come away saying 'yeah, I nailed that decision, didn't I?'
 
Not only that, but it's much easier to sympathise with a ref who has made an understandable balls-up in real time, it's far harder to support them once they've asked their mates, had a look at a monitor and come away saying 'yeah, I nailed that decision, didn't I?'
After 5 minutes. It's shit. Even the simple stuff takes 2 minutes. It's a farce.
 
It took the egg chasers five years to get it as good as it is now, (not without problems) which is now a part of the game and good in my humble opinion. It is also good that they also get almost all decisions right! The problems in football are, the break up of the game, the uncertainty to celebrate, or not, and then they still fucking get decisions utterly wrong - like the penalty to Manure last night! WTF? I thought it was introduced to stop this crap! We may as well have Howard Webb!
 
It took the egg chasers five years to get it as good as it is now, (not without problems) which is now a part of the game and good in my humble opinion. It is also good that they also get almost all decisions right! The problems in football are, the break up of the game, the uncertainty to celebrate, or not, and then they still fucking get decisions utterly wrong - like the penalty to Manure last night! WTF? I thought it was introduced to stop this crap! We may as well have Howard Webb!
Refs need to by mic’d up like they are in rugby so we can hear their thought process and reasoning. Images being reviewed by VAR should be visible to the crowd in the stadium.
Problem with footy is that it’s still very subjective and some rules are still open to interpretation. Not like in rugby when they’re checking the grounding of a ball or a foot out of play. I can’t see us getting to a point where the majority are always happy
 
New rule: Offsides are the only thing VAR refs can decide on without the on pitch ref having a look on the screen.

Add in some new offside measures to make it account for the inaccuracy of the technology and VAR will be alright.
 
Not only that, but it's much easier to sympathise with a ref who has made an understandable balls-up in real time, it's far harder to support them once they've asked their mates, had a look at a monitor and come away saying 'yeah, I nailed that decision, didn't I?'

You'd think that with 1 ref, 2 linoes, a 4th official pitchside and somebody at VAR HQ, making at least 5 people officiating, they'd get more decisions right than they are doing. Watched MotD tonight from mid week and there were so many mistakes it was unreal. I mean stupid WTF??? mistakes!
 

I always thought that the big 6 received too many decisions in their favour. I welcomed VAR as I genuinely believed that it would make the game a more level playing field as it would ensure that correct decisions were enforced and the 'Howard Webb effect' was thrown into obscurity. On last night's decisions - not so! WTF??
 
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I'd rather have the ref make decisions even if some are wrong, and not have the ridiculous waiting for goals to be allowed / disallowed. Ruins the elation of the goal. Previously glancing at the linesman or ref at the instant of the goal was enough.
I hate it.
Ref plus monitor for 4th official. Forget Shockley Park
 
All three of the incorrect decisions last night were clear and obvious in real time let alone after numerous replays.

From a technical perspective it is not fit for purpose as we have seen numerous times this season with incorrect / dubious decisions that have gone against us. Compound this with incompetent officials both on the pitch and in the var booth and you are basically fucked.

You might say when you've got the same VAR Officials as the one who runs around the pitch in black drawing pretty graphic lines there isnt any difference. You might say its not the technology its the muppets using it.

Then again to Err is to be human, to really fouls things up requires using VAR.

Be interesting test to stick a couple of neutral commentators/pundits in the VAR box and let them at it.
 
I am in favour of VAR. The theory of using technology to eradicate errors by the on field referee/linesman (and there were plenty of them) has to be right.

The problem is it was introduced without sufficient trials to eradicate the problems which have arisen and which could and should have been anticipated. It also is still reliant on subjective judgements and the people making those at Stockley Park have shown themselves to be inadequate and/or poorly trained. It should be there to “assist“ the on field referee ( clue in name!) and that’s why there is a Pitch side monitor but in practice for some reason the ref doesn’t use the monitor, does not make the ultimate decision so is usurped by Some faceleas VAR official at Stockley. On top of that the technology is being used To give offsides based on players being 2 or 3 cms offside when it is not accurate to that degree And finally there is no communication with players and crowd so no one knows what the hell is going on. None of these drawbacks is incapable of being resolved but until the system is sorted it will not improve the game or poor decisions. Somebody needs to get a grip and sort it.
 
VAR on basis it was brought in & presented to the teams. based on 2018 looked good & i was almost in favour as it was going to be cricket like. "to get rid of the howler". but then at some point last summer.

The PL changed it beyond all regiction. & the **** show that we have now. if teams knew this is what they were voting for. it would never have got through because howlers yes stop people being clearly offside. decisions that need a 2nd look this couldve enhanced the sport. but instead we are in danger of killing it by micromanaging every decision that is just not needed
 
I always thought that the big 6 received too many decisions in their favour. I welcomed VAR as I genuinely believed that it would make the game a more level playing field as it would ensure that correct decisions were enforced and the 'Howard Webb effect' was thrown into obscurity. On last night's decisions - not so! WTF??

You know the 'big 6' have benefited from VAR less than the sides which finished 12th-17th last season right?

Even the decisions 'last night' favored the lesser clubs more......

Although 'big 6' Manchester United were given a penalty incorrectly, 'big 6' Spurs were not given a clear penalty.
Likewise Everton and Villa are bigger clubs than Southampton and Bournemouth, but also lost out.
 
Just checked the stats and you are right about the big 6. VAR seems to be rather haphazard in who it favours. Man United along with Brighton top the list with +7 benefits from VAR. Meanwhile, we along with Wolves, West Ham and Norwich are on -5. I have no problem with that as long as VAR is used to arrive at the correct decision. The main problem that we have with it, (despite others) is that somehow the officials are still making incorrect decisions. For example Man Utd's penalty last night, the penalty that Spurs should have been awarded our Ghost goal vs Villa. I just can't understand how, with all the technology and a number of 'qualified' experts they are still getting clear decisions wrong. Just gives sad bitter twats like me the excuse to mistake incompetence for corruption. Maybe Howard Webb didn't favour Man United after all and was just a crap ref?
 
Having watched MOTD last night and seen all three penality decisions being utterly wrong
and which i believe most fans could tell in real time
what is the point of VAR?

The point of VAR is to remove decision making and blame from the matchday officials to avoid any legal proceedings being brought against them, or indeed against their employers, for incorrect decisions that cost clubs valuable points which could mean losses of millions in prize money.

There is just so much at stake now financially that it's only a matter of time before some club or other decide to take legal action to contest decisions that went against them and ultimately resulted in financial loss.

By involving the use of technology it means that a non-human can be blamed when serious errors of judgement are made that affect the outcome of a game. Look no further than the Hawk-Eye incident involving our club a few weeks ago at Villa. It wasn't a goal apparently, because the technology didn't spot it. :oops: And it works beautifully! Very few people levelled criticism at the referee, Michael Oliver, afterwards.

It's abstaining the matchday officials of blame and the majority of managers/clubs seem to be shrugging their shoulders and going..."well, if the technology didn't spot it, what can you do? It's just one of them things". 🤷‍♂️

Well I disagree strongly and I wish a few more clubs and managers would wake up to this because it's a significant threat to the future of the game. I prefer Jose Mourinho's take on it - this is what he said after the recent Blades v Spurs game...


"The referee is in the office," said Mourinho.

"I never complain at the guy with the whistle because it's not the referee any more.

"I think the referee should always be the man on the pitch and the people in the office should just support and assist.

"That's not the way it is. The referee who is not very good on the pitch, we cannot expect that he's good in the office.

"We're going in a direction that's really bad for the beautiful game, the game that everybody fell in love with."

I've been saying these exact same things myself since VAR was introduced last season.

Make no mistake - there is a very good reason for VAR and it's here to stay, no matter how crap it is, or how much it is ruining the game. If you thought it had been introduced to improve the game though, I can understand your confusion, because that's not what it's for at all. It's part of the longer term plan to sanitise the game - make it a non-contact sport eventually - take all the controversy out of it and sell it to global TV audiences of millions.
 
Until it can be used to help the refs, bin it off. It's currently making more mistakes than the actual ref.

Refs are scared to make calls, as are the team sat in the office. Noone checks the screen.

Every aspect is failing.
 
Think there’s a disproportional over reaction here.

People seem to have short memories of the game before VAR.
The players used to crowd and intimidate the refs most matches.....in an attempt to receive favourable decisions.
There used to be big mistakes in virtually every single match. There was always biased towards the biggest clubs.

Now with VAR....intimidating the ref has almost stopped...that’s a big bonus for me. There’s also less cheating and diving.
Its as though the players don’t see any point in screaming for a penalty when they’ve dived anymore because they know it will be picked up on a replay.

Also I think people complain about VAR because it’s not perfect and on occasions opinion based decisions still appear to be wrong.
However these opinion based errors are quite rare. Most games are refereed correctly with virtually no mistakes.

Statistics show that poor referee decisions are much rarer than previous.
The main negative of VAR is the delayed reaction to goals....it’s no longer the huge release of joy.

For example this week Egan scores against Wolves in the last minute.
My 1st thought is....was anyone offside? Was there pushing in the box? Did goal mouth technology not record it as going over the line?
So it does change the experience for fans.

I celebrated the goal about 10 seconds after it was scored and even then I’m half expecting something weird to happen to chalk off the goal.

I still think VAR is the way forward (the positives outweigh the negatives) but it needs tinkering/ improving. It currently feels like an experiment.
 
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The ref consulting the pitch side monitor has to be the solution. Pretty sure this will have improved the results quite a lot, except our Villa game of course. :(

At the moment he cant be arsed to run over there.
 
Might be worth asking some ex-pro's to be part of the VAR teams.

I feel that most refs don't know the game. They know the rules but not neccessarily the game, ex-pro's might help with this??

How many times this season have VAR given something or not given something that was the opposite of what the ex-player pundits would've given?

It may also improve when we get rid of Riley's version of VAR and it becomes uniform under Collina's control at FIFA, equally it may not but I'm hoping it will as Collina was a master ref.
 
I was agaisnt is even when we thought it would be 100% correct. It kills the game. Sadly I can't see them going back on it as they have put too much into it. A ref going pitch side to check will add more delays to knowing it a goal is scored.
 

You’ve got older refs who struggle to keep up with the game being VARed by younger refs who seems scared to overrule them. Why isn’t VAR done by the senior refs who aren’t as able to run up and down the pitch for 90 minutes and leave the on field reffing to the younger ones?
 

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