To VAR or not to VAR? that is the question

Brilliant brilliant post

I genuinely have fears for the game that this is gonna go too far and become Ameeicanised.

 

It's crap, bin it.


Mind you, I say that about most of the 21st Century's innovations.

 

I say no to this simply because not everyone will see the same thing. Keep it out of sight and between the referee and the bloke with the screen. 10-20 seconds max.

 

Never understood this theory. Refs can get abuse for making decisions against a team in real time. Surely everyone seeing the incident again would likely quell some of that

 

... From the team he gives the decision to.

How many debates do we have on here over an incident we all see? It would be carnage. It would also take too long. Let them do it between them while a goal is being celebrated without us knowing, or in the few seconds after a foul if it’s a penalty.

If an incident needs to be seen several times then it is too close to call. Stick to original decision.

 

That’s even worse.
Imagine celebrating a goal, let along a potentially very important one. You’re jumping in the aisles, the players are patting each other on the bum and then suddenly the ref is saying no goal.
You’d never be truly able to celebrate a goal again

 

Each to their own opinion. I think it could work and have the least disruption in the game. Players often run off celebrating now and don’t realise the referee has blown or lino has flagged.

I just believe that if it goes on the screen to see the review, there will be grief everywhere.

 

As it is, the first thing I do after we score is look for the ref and lino. This is just one more thing to sweat about.

I hate the whole idea of it personally. I don't see it improving the game at all, most of the reviewed decisions will still be contentious imo.

 

Think we’re mostly all seasoned enough to check to see if the lino has his flag up before going full on mental, but there has to be some signal to the crowd for them to know the goal is under review.
You made it sound like some cloak and dagger plot, where the officials act like a goal has been scored and then go HA - Got Ya!

 

Personally, I don't give a monkey's. It is being introduced. It will benefit the game by making if it fairer. In 12-24 months we won't be having this debate. We'll simply wonder why the technology took so long to be introduced.

 

The highlighted sentence is undoubtedly correct. After that, as with VAR itself, everything you say is opinion, and subject to ambiguity.

 

I think we will if games are being extended by 5-15 minutes due to checking the VAR. I like they want to use it and I voted yes, however it must be used quickly in game or the sport will become ruined.

 

Did you mean to reply to Archers? He’s the one who said he checks the if the lino has put his flag up...


I don’t think there needs to be a signal if they do it a very short period of time. The biggest issue to me is the time taken, not whether they signal Anything or not.

It is the time that potentially ruins our game.

 

No, to you....you said players often go off celebrating despite the Lino having his flag up or ref having blown.
So the players/crowd may miss these signals that a goal is ruled out or potentially being ruled out, but at least that signal has been made and news quickly reaches everyone within a matter of seconds.
There has to be some noticification that a review is taking place or you’ll get confusion and confusion is more likely to create a hostile environment

 

I am clearly in the minority here, maybe even a lone voice in the wilderness, but I would like to see it introduced but only by appeal.

Each team has one appeal against a decision each game. Only the captain can make the appeal. His own players will have to petition him to make the appeal, not the referee, so may wipe out the appeals to the ref. If a player appeals to the ref, he can redirect them to the captain to make a VAR appeal. They will only do this if they are absolutely certain that a serious mistake has been made that will influence the result of the game as they only get one chance. No wasting their one appeal on a decision about who gets awarded a throw in for example.

After the game, less recriminations aimed at the referee if he misses something as the team had a chance to appeal but didn't use it, or wasted their appeal on something superfluous. In the case of the Watford goal, enough of our players saw it to be able to convince the captain to appeal.

Decisions reviewed at the pitch side by ref and 4th official.

 

I think it’s clear we disagree, which is fine. Neither is right or wrong

 

I've voted 'No', based on it's current implementation, but reserve the right to change my mind if it improves.

Obviously, this technology works well for a number of sports, even if, for some, it's taken a while to bed in.

Still have my doubts though. For example (one for the conspiracy theorists), some people believe that there is refereeing bias in favour of some of the bigger clubs; if the appeal is left to the ref, and he chooses not to review a decision that would disallow a goal for a bigger club, what then? Does the team also get the right to appeal a decision? If so, how often per game?

For me, the other concern would be the introduction of VAR causing certain FA rules to be changed/amended in order to make the application of VAR easier. Coming from a techie background, all too often, I've seen IT/technology force business processes change, just because it was easier than trying to get the technology to work. Take handball vs. accidental handball in the box; in most cases, it's not immediately obvious, so even if the decision goes to VAR, it comes down to whether or not the ref believes it's accidental or deliberate. FA could easily say "fine, if a ball hits the hand in the box, it's a penalty (defending team)/free kick (attacking team) - regardless of whether it is accidental"...just to make VAR easier.

All that said, football (especially Premier League), is now a big money business, where the outcomes of a season, and the distribution of billions of pounds can come down to the decisions of a handful of human beings (some sitting behind me argue the refs don't actually qualify for human, but that's a different discussion). Surely, if technology can prevent erroneous decisions from being made, it can only be a good thing; at the moment though, I don't think it really helps.

TL;DR: I'm not really sure, but for me it isn't fit for purpose yet.

 

This is one of my biggest concerns.

Or we won't be here as we will have fallen out of love with the game.

 

Not a fan of VAR, but if introduced it must be limited in application, very fast and give priority to what the ref/linesmen saw live on the pitch. Players (as now) must not surround the ref. Reviews for handball should only be done if a penalty has been given so the game has stopped anyway....if not given and game has continued...hard cheese.

A professional player (name forgotten) said on TV that VAR will remove the immediacy and excitement of the game.....that is what I fear. There may be gains, but what has been lost may be harder to measure....especially as technology may get involved in areas of the game that we aren't even thinking about at the moment. As I said earlier, those of us who remember the game as it was will eventually die out and the next generation won't know and will accept what they have.

 

No one will think any less of you if you admit you’ve got it wrong