I posted this elsewhere, but think it could be worth a thread of its own. Premier League clubs will vote on whether to scrap video assistant referees (VAR) from next season at their annual general meeting next month. Wolves have formally submitted a resolution to the Premier League which will trigger a vote when the 20 member clubs meet in Harrogate on 6 June. The club said VAR was introduced "in good faith" but has led to "numerous unintended negative consequences that are damaging the relationship between fans and football".
All I can say is that, for once, I hope Wolves win. For me, VAR has been a monumental waste of time and money since its inception - and has probably created more arguments over decisions than there were before its introduction. There must have been some research undertaken which looks at contentious decisions and why they were contentious - I suspect it would show that rule changes were the problem, so common sense would dictate that they be looked at. My dad played professionally and he would be spinning in his grave at the thought that players can be offside by a toenail or that penalties can be awarded for handball because players couldn't move their arms quickly enough. I remember him losing interest in the game when Fulham started paying Johnny Haynes £100 a week - what he'd make of all the changes/innovations since then is anyone's guess. I never once heard him swear but I reckon the air around him would be a deep blue if he knew what had happened to the game he once played.
Personally, I think it has become a millstone around the game. Totally agree with you BB on the offside and handball comments. It doesn't have to be like that though. Athletics for example, uses it to separate runners at the end of a sprint when it is too fast for the eye to be certain. Arms and legs may be anywhere, but it is the body that decides the winner. So that is the law in football that needs to change if you are keeping the system. There was more than one occasion over the last season when we asked where is VAR when you need it, but that has come about since fans no longer accepted that the ref was always right, even though he was wrong.
It’s been too subjective which people didn’t realise . From a fans point of view probably the right idea. We haven’t seen decisions get any better with it Mind you won’t stop teams complaining about decisions!
Earlier this season I read that the Swedish Allsvenskan voted not to introduce VAR into their league. There appear to be a number of problems with VAR: 1 There is still a human element where interpretation is required and the officials appear to make too many errors in judgement. Perhaps there will be some improvement if the Premier League go ahead with their plan to introduce AI (as used by FIFA) to decide on offside decisions. 2 Some of the decisions are based on the smallest of margins. VAR would be better served if it was used to intervene where there has been a clear and obvious error rather than fussing about minutiae, which - in my opinion - detract from the enjoyment of the game. 3 Some VAR decisions take far too long to reach a judgement. Why do these decisions take so long if there has been a clear and obvious error? The length of time for some decisions frustrates the spectators and undermines the exhilaration of scoring for the players because they have to wait for confirmation of a goal before they can celebrate.
I am sympathetic to BB's and OFH's views and feel that VAR in it's present form should be scrapped. There needs to be some common sense changes to the rules esp of handball and offside (which I would scrap) but I think to be offside you need to have daylight between you and the opponents body (torso). There are many different decision review systems around the world (cricket, rugby, tennis) which seem much more efficient and clear cut in the decision making and they are transparant to spectators. When I see the army of VAR refs on the side of the pitch I am thinking, why? One to review and one to work the tech surely. Refs and linesmen need to up their game a bit too. I see a lot of balls go out of play and it's not flagged.
My view is that VAR needs reform. Show the replays in the stadium and the miked-up deliberation like you would do in rugby. The fact that the fans at the event don't know what's going on is a big problem. If the process isn't professional enough to do that, then don't have VAR. Go back to the clear and obvious rule, so VAR only intervenes for genuine errors and stops intervening in subjective things that could be one way or another. If there's disagreement about the VAR decisions, it proved it wasn't clear and obvious. Stop messing around with the handball rule. Just go back to talking about deliberate handball. In reality, almost all the time ball and hand touch it's accidental. The off-side rule was written based on humans watching once with their naked eye. Lots of these narrow decisions are what would have been considered level (and therefore onside) in the past. I would suggest not drawing lines, and therefore only over-ruling the on-field decision if it is clearly and obviously wrong.
That is something else that annoys me about it. Football is a game played by humans for the enjoyment of humans (well, unless your club performs as poorly as ours has done for the last few years ) Humans make mistakes - no-one is perfect, we're all prone to making them; The number of mistakes made by players in any match far exceeds the number made by officials, even when factoring in the fact that are more players; If players didn't make mistakes, there would be no penalties, no fouls, no offside, every shot would hit the back of the net etc etc; So why on earth does everyone expect referees to be perfect all the time? We can slag them off at the time, or in the pub after the game - but, as in previous years, then forget about it and move on. But, of course, the pundits and so-called experts on TV won't let us do that - they justify their existence by poring over every decision, every pass, every move from multiple angles ad nauseum and have really turned the game into a circus.
Well I agree with basically everything Wolves have said, sums up the problem nicely (although the data would suggest there are more correct decisions overall, even if it doesn't feel like it).
My point was that one of the justifications for introducing VAR was that it would remove the element of human error, which is clearly not the case.
No exactly as it’s still subjective on many incidents even if there have been a few very bad calls but there have also been some good ones. Trouble is really everyone wants a decision going their way no matter what it is first .
In what way ? They aren’t robots who will give decisions exactly the same as each other ., Not saying there haven’t been bad errors and a lot if VAR confusion and inconsistency but obviously that will always happen .
I seem to remember that football is a game involving a ball and feet. Offside was determined by the position of the leading foot. What on earth has thumbs , waistlines etc got to do with offside ?
This rather famous video shows a French footballer scoring with his penis - imagine the reaction if VAR was asked to scrutinise it for offside from every angle, and then draw a line for all to see showing why or why not it was offside...
Unfair advantage to Israeli clubs/players - the FA suits would have to come up with a rule covering that - and we all know how useless they are at making rules...
I saw fifa doing some experimental games giving the coach 2 appeals/reviews per game. What they are suggesting is part way there to improving VAR
Well maybe but it won’t stop refs making their own subjective decisions/errors teams keep moaning about but might mean less petty reviews if they have to choose wisely what to appeal .
