The Video Assistant Referee (VAR)

[NeilS]

5 minutes ago, MaVilla said:

the incompetence of referee's in the PL is mind boggling, so many terrible VAR decisions, or terrible general decisions, i mean.....how on earth can this ever be allowed to happen!?!?

I dont want to compare, but look at the refs in Rugby generally, and the VAR in Rugby, both are infinitely better, i dont understand how football can get something so simple, like VAR, so, so wrong.....

the levels of general incompetence are actually shocking for such a major sporting event as the PL.

 

Just when you think they can’t get any worse, PGMOL plumb new depths of ineptitude. 

[KentVillan]

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-11740619/VAR-Lee-Mason-FORGOT-draw-offside-lines-reviewing-Ivan-Toneys-controversial-equaliser.html

Quote

Arsenal fury as it emerges VAR Lee Mason FORGOT to draw offside lines when reviewing Ivan Toney's goal for Brentford at the Emirates in a major error that could affect the title race

Mason took an age to decide that Pinnock was not interfering with play but then rushed past the key incident and checked it without drawing the crucial VAR lines.

Had he done so, Norgaard would have been ruled offside and Toney’s 74th-minute goal disallowed.  

‘Ivan Toney puts the ball in the net and VAR Lee Mason obviously runs through the checks,’ said Mail on Sunday referee expert and PGMOL representative Chris Foy, who was in the Match Centre at Stockley Park on Saturday.

‘VAR was looking to see if there was an offside and whether Ethan Pinnock had blocked off Gabriel in the build-up. He looked at the possible foul and decided there hadn’t been one and therefore referee Peter Bankes hadn’t made a clear and obvious error.

‘However, in the build-up to the goal, Christian Norgaard — whose cross it is that Toney heads in — is in an offside position.

‘However, the truth is that VAR didn’t fully investigate with the lines. The lines, simply, didn’t go down. And that counts as human error.Had the lines gone down the goal would have been disallowed for offside.’

"You had one job"

[ThunderPower_14]

Jesus Christ, 2 unforgivable errors from VAR in one day, one of which could decide the title. 

Sack everyone and start again. 

[Straggler]

I've gone full circle with VAR. I was really pleased when it came in, but it is so badly run that I am now ready to see it go. It's sucking the life out of the game by removing the fun of celebrating a goal, and it is giving back so very little. It's not the fault of the technology, purely the people running it. They are incompetent. 

You don't let a driver get back behind the wheel of a car if they keep causing accidents, their license gets taken away because they can't be trusted. VAR results can't be trusted so why accept the downside if the upside is so minimal.

[Tayls]

The quicker they bring in the decision making where they address the crowd the better I reckon. The game is going to a more NFL style anyway. 

[Pongo's Socks]

I've said it before and I'll say it again. VAR has absolutely NO place in football. Its sucking the life out of the game. The spontaneity has gone, players and fans alike are reluctant to celebrate. It's a game played by humans, watched by humans and officiated by humans. I've seen players and managers make far more game-changing mistakes than refs ever did, but they don't get the chance to reverse their decisions. Everything that made football so captivating is slowly being eroded. 

And to top it off, it doesn't even work. Please, just give us our game back

[villa4europe]

Remember the world cup?

Remember how it wasn't that bad and for offsides they did that blue 3D line thing which worked quite well? And then how they added on 10 minutes at the end of each half to make up for all the time lost

Its PGMOL and the PL that are **** it up, I still think football has too much grey area, uncertainty and cheating which means you can't be 100% accurate and therefore you waste 5 mins to still get a "wrong" decision but the mess we have in the PL is not because of VAR its the implementation of it and its sheer ineptitude which I would then spin in to the conspiracy theory that the PL ride PGMOLs ineptitude because the drama is good for the product

[Tommo_b]

1 hour ago, Pongo's Socks said:

I've said it before and I'll say it again. VAR has absolutely NO place in football. Its sucking the life out of the game. The spontaneity has gone, players and fans alike are reluctant to celebrate. It's a game played by humans, watched by humans and officiated by humans. I've seen players and managers make far more game-changing mistakes than refs ever did, but they don't get the chance to reverse their decisions. Everything that made football so captivating is slowly being eroded. 

And to top it off, it doesn't even work. Please, just give us our game back

Couldn’t agree more.

[Tayls]

1 hour ago, Pongo's Socks said:

I've said it before and I'll say it again. VAR has absolutely NO place in football. Its sucking the life out of the game. The spontaneity has gone, players and fans alike are reluctant to celebrate. It's a game played by humans, watched by humans and officiated by humans. I've seen players and managers make far more game-changing mistakes than refs ever did, but they don't get the chance to reverse their decisions. Everything that made football so captivating is slowly being eroded. 

And to top it off, it doesn't even work. Please, just give us our game back

No it does. No team should be allowed to lift a trophy, or be relegated because of a human error where, for example, an offside isn't called. It’s the people operating it that needs to change. The tech itself is exactly where it needs to be. 

Edited February 12, 2023 by Tayls

[bannedfromHandV]

I wonder if we’ll have Howard Webb appearing on Monday Night Football this week telling us that it’s all okay because ‘the game’ has since educated the referees in that the decisions were wrong, again.

[Pongo's Socks]

1 minute ago, Tayls said:

No it does. No team should be allowed to lift a trophy, or be relegated because of a human error where, for example, an offside isn't called. Its the people operating that needs to change. The tech itself is exactly where it needs to be. 

But you're changing the fundamentals of the whole game for something that rarely happens. You don't get relegated for a bad decision, it's because your shite for 38 games. And trophys may have been won where a goal should've been disallowed (can't think of a specific example to be honest), but to change the entire beautiful game, by effectively pressing the pause button while they go back to check for offsides, fouls, etc, is detrimental to the game as a whole. There's more to football than absolutes, it's a living, breathing entity, that's slowly being choked to death

[villa4europe]

10 minutes ago, Tayls said:

No it does. No team should be allowed to lift a trophy, or be relegated because of a human error where, for example, an offside isn't called. It’s the people operating it that needs to change. The tech itself is exactly where it needs to be. 

The people operating the technology are not good enough

The pitch refs are not good enough

There's been so many rule changes that no one knows what the **** is going on anymore

The common theme is not the technology...

 

[Straggler]

1 hour ago, Tayls said:

No it does. No team should be allowed to lift a trophy, or be relegated because of a human error where, for example, an offside isn't called. It’s the people operating it that needs to change. The tech itself is exactly where it needs to be. 

I don't disagree with the principal here, but the point is that the people are not about to change. They can barely admit that there is a need to change. Whilst this is the case I would rather be rid of the whole thing.

[sidcow]

1 hour ago, Tayls said:

No it does. No team should be allowed to lift a trophy, or be relegated because of a human error where, for example, an offside isn't called. It’s the people operating it that needs to change. The tech itself is exactly where it needs to be. 

Maybe to take that human error out we can have a third system that analyses the VAR officials, examines in minute detail what they've done and review all their decisions. That's guaranteed to then take the human error out of the otherwise flawless system. 

[sidcow]

My son showed me a handball in a Burnley game that wasn't given. Suprised it's not been discussed on here. Player threw himself across the box and tipped a ball round the post yet not given. How it is possible to not consider that a clear and obvious error? 

The whole thing is just shit. 

[bobzy]

I don’t understand what’s happening because I’ve been assured many times that VAR is a further sign of the corruption of the game and that it benefits the “Sky scum 6” etc - but it seems that it benefitted Brentford and West Ham yesterday?

Are they doing it wrong?

[KentVillan]

2 hours ago, Pongo's Socks said:

But you're changing the fundamentals of the whole game for something that rarely happens. You don't get relegated for a bad decision, it's because your shite for 38 games. And trophys may have been won where a goal should've been disallowed (can't think of a specific example to be honest), but to change the entire beautiful game, by effectively pressing the pause button while they go back to check for offsides, fouls, etc, is detrimental to the game as a whole. There's more to football than absolutes, it's a living, breathing entity, that's slowly being choked to death

I agree with you on delayed celebrations but think people are forgetting how big the injustices used to be pre VAR.

Vidic not getting sent off in the 2010 league cup final. De Jong staying on the pitch in the 2010 WC final.

Maradona’s hand of god, Henry’s hand ball vs Ireland.

Ghost goals.

VAR mistakes are frustrating because it’s so hard to understand how they’ve happened, but much worse mistakes used to be made routinely before it came in. Massively wrong offside calls, big fouls missed, etc.

I think we should keep VAR but have specialist video referees who aren’t drawn from the match referee pool, and aren’t mates with the match referees.

[S-Platt]

8 minutes ago, KentVillan said:

I agree with you on delayed celebrations but think people are forgetting how big the injustices used to be pre VAR.

Vidic not getting sent off in the 2010 league cup final. De Jong staying on the pitch in the 2010 WC final.

Maradona’s hand of god, Henry’s hand ball vs Ireland.

Ghost goals.

VAR mistakes are frustrating because it’s so hard to understand how they’ve happened, but much worse mistakes used to be made routinely before it came in. Massively wrong offside calls, big fouls missed, etc.

I think we should keep VAR but have specialist video referees who aren’t drawn from the match referee pool, and aren’t mates with the match referees.

Lampards no goal against Germany was what started it and Goal Line Technology is a fine thing.  

The only time it did not work we benefited with Nyland.

VAR works everywhere else just our shitty refs that all back each other up where it sucks.

World Cup offsides were fine let's just use that system.

[Pongo's Socks]

21 minutes ago, KentVillan said:

I agree with you on delayed celebrations but think people are forgetting how big the injustices used to be pre VAR.

Vidic not getting sent off in the 2010 league cup final. De Jong staying on the pitch in the 2010 WC final.

Maradona’s hand of god, Henry’s hand ball vs Ireland.

Ghost goals.

VAR mistakes are frustrating because it’s so hard to understand how they’ve happened, but much worse mistakes used to be made routinely before it came in. Massively wrong offside calls, big fouls missed, etc.

I think we should keep VAR but have specialist video referees who aren’t drawn from the match referee pool, and aren’t mates with the match referees.

I get that, I really do. But it actually seems like we spend more time discussing VAR than those dodgy decisions. I just can't see how you implement it without changing what the game is about. People are saying the technology is fine, it's the clowns interpretation of the rules that's the problem. So let's say the VAR, whoever he/she is, gets every call 100% correct every time. We're still stopping the game/delaying kick off after most goals, delaying set pieces, checking for previous breaches etc. It's that delay, that doubt whether you can celebrate, that reliance on the technology that's detracting from the game.

Of course, all in my opinion 

[Stevo985]

53 minutes ago, bobzy said:

I don’t understand what’s happening because I’ve been assured many times that VAR is a further sign of the corruption of the game and that it benefits the “Sky scum 6” etc - but it seems that it benefitted Brentford and West Ham yesterday?

Are they doing it wrong?

Yeah the corruption stuff is nonsense really. I’m sure the bigger clubs still get more of the decisions because that kind of bias is never going to change. 
 

But the train of thought that VAR is letting referees deliberately manipulate results is nonsense. 
 

They’re just incompetent and they’ve implemented it terribly