Thoughts ? I have seen it in a few games now, including Liverpool v West Brom last night. The plus side is that it removes the ref errors from the game, although given the standard of the referees in League One, the average game might take 5 hours to complete. The downside is that it clearly breaks up the flow of the game. Some of the delays in the Liverpool game were farcical. It will become like American football if they are not careful. How about keep V.A.R, but a decision must be made within 30 seconds else the original stands ?
Remove 'errors' and you take away half of the talking points after any game. Second guess the referee when he makes a decision that could arguably go either way, and you take away most of the remainder. I'm not against goal line technology, which gives the referee instant and accurate information. But VAR will change Football so much it will no longer be the game that we know. I don't want to wait for more than a minute to be told whether I can cheer a goal or not - or whether my team have just conceded a penalty. Or anything else. Not only does VAR break up the flow of the game, it ruins the emotional flow of the atmosphere. My verdict would be NO to VAR unless decisions could be made in less than TEN seconds. Even that is quite a long time when you consciously count them. And only for what the referee alone considers the decisions he cannot confidently make himself. There should be a big 10 second counter clock in every ground, or a row of ten lights that go out one each second. If the VAR people cannot make a decision by the time the last light goes out then the referee's original call stands. Even that would create a new condition within the atmosphere of a game, as the crowd would probably count down in time with the clock or lights. But at least the delay would be limited, and the emotion not allowed to just dissipate because of an 'endless' wait for a decision. In my opinion even ten seconds is too long and I would rather not have VAR at all, but ten seconds would be the least worst option, if we must have the damned thing at all. And definitely NO to a dumb artificial limit, like 3 calls per manager per game. If VAR becomes something managers can control it will just be used to cheat - like making substitutions deep into injury time just to use up seconds. I know that has happened for years and most fans accept it, but to me it is still unsporting and frustrating. I want to see football played during injury time, not watch players walking off ridiculously slowly during time wasting substitutions - even if it is my team that is using the tactic. Before VAR, how many times was a decision delayed by the referee consulting with his linesman? We have played 15 home games this season, and I cannot remember one delay yet in a decision at the Valley. And let's be clear - the "A" (assisted) is just a fig leaf - a transitional nicety. We are taking about the beginning of VR here - Video Refereeing. In future, there will be at least five or six delays in every game - eventually every decision will be referred. Great goals will be disallowed because of an obscure offside call most linesmen could never make in real time. Indeed there won't be much point having linesmen anymore. Every goal will be VAR'd for possible offside. And you can't VAR the linesman when he raises his flag, because the defending players see it and stop anyway. Without linesmen, playing an offside trap will become impossible. Attacking play will go on until a goal is scored or the chance missed. That might lead to more goals, but it will almost certainly lead to many of those goals ruled offside by VAR. So more unhappy fans - who will get far more annoyed at having a goal disallowed than having an attack halted by a linesman's flag. Referees will bottle every penalty decision, leading to endless delays after every corner kick. Players will be making that stupid TV sign in the ref's face every few minutes. Basically, players will adapt their game not to play the whistle or the flag, but to play the video. Not the game of Football as I have known it all my life. But I suppose it will happen anyway. Technology used not to help, but to dominate and create dependence.
The genie is out of the bottles now. Who knows where it will end up. What would help would be if players would stop cheating. Not just diving, also the sly little tug; players are constantly pushing the boundaries of use of their arms. And if referees could spot a foul without a player having to throw himself to the floor to get the decision. The referees' job is becoming increasingly difficult, and VAR is a new unpredictable addition to the whole mix.
