Bristol City vs West Ham, VAR, and the clear divide that is widening in football The crunching tackles and "handbags" at Ashton Gate show how VAR is creating two versions of the same game Bristol City beat West Ham United in a FA Cup tie and a significant part of the post-match discussion was about a thing that wasn’t even involved - the Video Assistant Referee. But VAR is gradually changing the game, the way it’s played and, perhaps most crucially of all, the laws of the game and the way they are enforced. So much so that it could be argued that there are now two different sports called football: the game called football in the Premier League, where VAR analyses every moment in slow-motion detail, and the rest of football - from the Championship downwards, where they do not. So much has been debated about VAR in the heady atmosphere of the Premier League bubble, but actually there’s a bigger picture at play here - the division of the game into VAR and non-VAR - and the FA Cup third round tie between Bristol City and West Ham, shown live on BBC1 for the nation to see, highlighted just how different football is with it, and without it. The replay at Ashton Gate - and the first game in London - was characterised by West Ham’s complaints about some pretty meaty tackles by City. Several Hammers’ players were injured, and in the replay, the ‘robust’ nature of the challenges again triggered a lot of West Ham fans’ fury. There were three incidents that were talked about the most, but these were the most obvious examples of a match in which, many pundits, reporters and fans agreed, West Ham were rattled byCity’s physicality, to the point that the word ‘bully’ was widely used. West Ham fans’ fury was such that Mail Online even put together a collection of tweets and turned it into an article. After the game, West Ham’s defeated manager David Moyes wondered aloud why VAR wasn’t a requirement in the FA Cup, pointing out that things would have played out differently if it had; although, in defence of the former Robins defender, he was led down that road somewhat with the questioning and repeatedly didn't want it to seem like an excuse. The first of the incidents was a crunching tackle by City midfielder Joe Williams on West Ham striker Danny Ings. Williams slid in, made contact with the ball first and his continued momentum took Ings out, with a nasty looking blow to the shin. Referee Darren England didn’t give this as a foul, let alone book or send-off Williams, leaving him unfettered to - in the eyes of some of the West Ham fans watching - crash around the pitch in his typically industrial manner. Early in the second half, he responded to a foul by a West Ham player that wasn’t given, by crunching in on winger Said Benrahma. The Algerian, left in a heap on his back, lashed out, kicking upwards at Williams. The City man was booked for the original foul, and Benrahma sent off for the violent conduct of the retaliation. A third incident was flagged by West Ham fans in their case for injustice - an off the ball coming-together between City midfielder Taylor Gardner-Hickman and West Ham left back Aaron Cresswell. They grappled a bit, Gardner-Hickman nearly had his shirt ripped off, and the City man responded by swinging a hand to cuff the back of Cresswell’s neck. It was off-the-ball, the referee booked both and the match continued. After the game, the reaction from West Ham fans showed just how different the game of football is between the Premier League and everything else - from the Championship down - in terms of interpretation of the rules, how it’s reffed and played. And it’s only when the two diverging worlds meet, on a night like Tuesday night at Ashton Gate, that the widening difference can be plainly seen. In the Premier League, tackles like Williams’ on Ings are increasingly rare to see. Even if the referee’s instant reaction was ‘good, strong tackle’, as it was on Tuesday, the VAR would have looked at it again, gone into slow-motion, seen Williams’ foot make contact with Ings’ shin, frozen the picture at the moment of impact, and almost certainly told the ref to either issue a straight red or go to the monitor to see for himself. Williams’ tackle was far more forceful than one earlier this month that earned Everton striker Dominic Calvert-Lewin a VAR-created red card - a sanction later overturned a week later. In that tackle, Calvert-Lewin expertly won the ball by sliding in and hooking it from in front of Crystal Palace's Nathaniel Clyne, making minimal contact as he did so. VAR’s slow motion and freeze-frame made it look so bad it was deemed dangerous and reckless enough to warrant a red card - a decision roundly condemned. In the Championship, however, it is a different world. The game is played differently, officiated differently and the laws are interpreted differently. Evidentally, West Ham’s manager, players and certainly their fans don’t watch of a lot of Championship football. It’s a league where tackles like Williams’ on Ings and where handbags like Gardner-Hickman vs Cresswell happen pretty much several times a game. In the Championship you’d see the coming together of Gardner-Hickman and Cresswell usually earning both of them yellow cards, but sometimes that kind of confrontation might just see the refs giving them both a talking to. In the Championship, it wouldn’t be unusual to see a tackle like Williams’ on Ings - where the player slides in, gets the ball first and then takes out the man too - half a dozen times in the same game. If I saw six of those tackles in the Championship, I’d expect four of them to not even be given as fouls, two maybe a foul and possibly a yellow card. It would be very surprising to see a tackle like that earn a red card in the Championship. Things are so different that, I have to confess, in the time between Benrahma’s kick out against Williams, and the ref announcing his punishment, I fully expected him to receive a yellow card. In real time, the red was a surprise, albeit later warranted by seeing the replay. On Twitter/X, Telegraph journalist and West Ham fan Dan Silver posed the question: “Are Bristol City this thuggish every week, or do they just save it for games when they play West Ham?” And weirdly, the answer to both questions is ‘no’. Fans of other Championship clubs would scoff at the idea that City were somehow a tough or physical team - they have a reputation among your Rotherhams, Stokes and Hull Citys as a bit soft and lightweight, if anything. Of the 24 teams in the Championship, City’s average of 9.8 fouls per game puts them 16th in the division. They are even ‘nicer’ when it comes to red and yellow cards. The 43 yellow cards and one red (which was for two ‘technical’ yellow cards on Rob Dickie against Birmingham City in August) this season, means that only Leeds United have a better disciplinary record. Yes, there’s always been a difference between top-flight football and the lower divisions. The further down the pyramid you go, the more you expect to see ‘industrial’ challenges, players using their physicality to make up for lesser technical ability. But it’s always, traditionally, been a gradual step down. The Premier League has had ‘industrial’ teams in the past, the Championship has had wispish ball-playing teams who don’t get stuck in. Now, the gulf is stark. The difference is huge, to the point where it’s becoming two different sports. And VAR is the reason for that. The VAR would have sent off Williams, and probably Gardner-Hickman too. But the point is, if the match had been played with the aid of such technology, it’s likely Williams would not have made that tackle in the first place. He would have known he was playing VAR Football and, hopefully, acted accordingly. Tackles where the player takes both ball and man just don’t really happen in VAR Football anymore. In fact, the common sight of players in the Premier League winning free kicks by going down at any kind of contact, let alone a wipe-out tackle, also feeds into that. VAR Football in the Premier League and Champions League appears to be diverging from the rest of football so quickly, that it’s beginning to resemble a non-contact sport. It's not quite at the level of Rugby Union and Rugby League just yet, but it's the early stages of that kind of split. Moyes' longing for VAR to be in the FA Cup is understandable, given his side just played a game under non-VAR conditions and lost because of it. But it's pretty unrealistic, especially in the early rounds. It's not logistically possible to install all the cameras required at, say, Newport Ciunty's Rodney Parade, when they play Manchester United later this month. And besides, requiring the FA Cup to have VAR would simply give Premier League teams the same unfair advantage of playing the game to their rules as Bristol City enjoyed when a non-VAR game of football was played at Ashton Gate. The Premier League has created this split by not only developing VAR but creating the monster that it has become, with just as much capacity for human error as before, but one where a different game of football evolves. So I can completely understand why West Ham fans - and Moyes - are so incredulously fuming after seeing two games against City in which the Robins have appeared to - to certain Irons supporters eyes - crunched into tackles and - illegally - bullied their side. They are right when they say ‘look at Williams’ tackle, it’s a straight red’, because they play a version of the game where it is. But equally, City fans are right to disagree, because they play a version of the game where it’s not even a foul. https://www.bristolpost.co.uk/sport/sport-opinion/bristol-city-west-ham-var-9041473
to appease the prem teams and to indicate the game should be played in a gentle soft way The FA are considering where games that involve a prem team and other league team, that the Prem teams wear a tutu to remind the non prem team they are playing prima donna's............. please log in to view this image
Wiz… that article should be put out to a wider audience because it is so true!! Maybe, put it on the Hammers Not606 page and see what response you get!! Everything in the football world, according to the media, centres around the Prem League, when clearly it shouldn’t!! Grass roots football is very much like the game on Tuesday, and I actually remarked on one of the other threads, that it was a “good, old fashioned” game of footie. As far as I am concerned, long may it last!
a bit heart stopping though! after getting so used to it before mamby pamby ref's took centre stage and VAR!
I watched the replay last night between Blackpool and Forest that was refereed by Darren Bond and despite the fact that there was no VAR he did a superb job. Not a single player complained about being booked and he let the game flow rather than the Premier League that seems to take forever over offside calls and even then they still get it wrong. Several sending-offs have been overturned on review and I reckon that someone at the top needs to give serious thought as to what it actually bring to the game other than confusion and anger. Up until VAR was deemed essential to the betterment of the sport we managed perfectly well and I would like to suggest that there were fewer mistakes under that regime than there are with this video monster. I would like to see a line across the pitch nearer to the goal line in which offsides are not given (say at 30 yards) which could possibly make the game more attack minded because there would be a further 20 yard zone available to forwards to ply their trade. VAR need a serious review of it's own and should be dumbed down and used in the top two tiers for offsides and fouls that need a second look but other than that perhaps it should be scrapped. Is it used elsewhere in Europe??? Nice article Wiz - thanks.
Its a really interesting article. We have two tier football because above the championship because VAR is creating re- interpretation of the laws of the game. Offences are only offences in the EPL because VAR micro manages the laws creating modern VAR offences, and that micro management does not apply to football from the grass roots to the championship. I think it (VAR) undermines football. Laws and their interpretation should be even at all levels.
I love the tackles by Williams and I laugh at some of the West Ham fans reactions. I long for tackles like Williams to be the norm not on rare occasions. I also wait and long for the day football bin the possession for the sake of possession mind numbing football. It's killing football as a spectacle.
...and yet we produce the same thing every season. You're spot on about the boring back and across football and with a club like ours that is always susceptible to mistakes that's a problem waiting to happen and when you add in that we don't have anyone to put the ball in the back of our opponents net you can see why we will never succeed. by playing this way.
So what is the alternative to patient, possession football? Just lump it forwards long ball style? Some of our posters on here are perhaps showing their age with such comments. The modern game is very different to the 50's & 60's era, for better or worse.
Players are much fitter now, they are probably technically better too, as a spectacle I prefer how it used to be, but time moves on.
I'll tell you one thing it's absolutely nothing to do with age. I'm talking football enjoyment as a spectacle. Or are you saying younger fans prefer possession football ?
I think he’s saying younger fans obviously didn’t see football in the 50’s or 60’s. Or I may add the 70’s or 80’s so their perception is different. The game is altogether different now.
But Liverpool won many away matches in the 70s and 80s by doing just that, including beating us at the gate in the FA Cup 6th round in ‘74 They were scared of how we’d beaten Leeds and came to ruin the game Which they did
