As if I'm not feeling depressed enough about our footballing future, I now find myself agreeing with Garth Crooks on the subject of VAR.
When that plonker disallowed Gabbiadini's goal at Wembley we all, understandably, squealed with outrage and demanded something must be done. Classically, football has come up with a complete dog's dinner of a system.
There are s many things wrong with it, but let's just highlight two.
How far do you need to go back to see an incident? This was highlighted by the Wales "try" against England. Just looking at who touched the ball down gave a try. Reel back and there's an unnoticed knock on. Let's suppose we had had VAR at Wembley last year. Might it have shown an unpunished offence by a Saints player in the build up?
Secondly, and arguably my biggest concern, is the impact on the referee's credibility and his/her confidence to make a call.
As a former club cricketer, I am not happy with the review system. Will someone tell me how a test level umpire can miss a no-ball? Yes, it happens. But then being given out LBW off an inside edge; some bugger snaffling a "catch" after it's bounced; caught behind off your pads all happen too. As cricket has demonstrated reviews do not eliminate controversy, but often fuel it. The end result seems to be an erosion of the umpire's confidence to make a call.
Allegedly, according to my fellow Northamers, we always get **** refs. It's called football, and refs will, in my view, get ****tier
When that plonker disallowed Gabbiadini's goal at Wembley we all, understandably, squealed with outrage and demanded something must be done. Classically, football has come up with a complete dog's dinner of a system.
There are s many things wrong with it, but let's just highlight two.
How far do you need to go back to see an incident? This was highlighted by the Wales "try" against England. Just looking at who touched the ball down gave a try. Reel back and there's an unnoticed knock on. Let's suppose we had had VAR at Wembley last year. Might it have shown an unpunished offence by a Saints player in the build up?
Secondly, and arguably my biggest concern, is the impact on the referee's credibility and his/her confidence to make a call.
As a former club cricketer, I am not happy with the review system. Will someone tell me how a test level umpire can miss a no-ball? Yes, it happens. But then being given out LBW off an inside edge; some bugger snaffling a "catch" after it's bounced; caught behind off your pads all happen too. As cricket has demonstrated reviews do not eliminate controversy, but often fuel it. The end result seems to be an erosion of the umpire's confidence to make a call.
Allegedly, according to my fellow Northamers, we always get **** refs. It's called football, and refs will, in my view, get ****tier
, but Var will never be perfect either.