The VAR Thread

[mill]

It was for the slight contact which caused the swiss player to trip, even though he kicked his own foot!
It was deemed a penalty - we will settle for soft

Terrible decision imho

 

[cwy21]

I think psychology played a big part of it for the ref.

1) This is a ref who was sent home early from the World Cup for not using VAR. So that means he's probably gonna use it even if it's not super clear.

2) It was pretty much a two goal swing. Yes it's a soft PK, but it's an understandable one. If the ball went out for a throw in then I think it's easier to say it wasn't a clear error. When it stops for a Portugal PK, saying it wasn't a clear PK means not only taking a goal from one team but giving a goal to the other.

Glad I wasn't the ref for that one.

 

[SteveH]

Terrible decision imho

To be honest I agree but was not shocked, there was contact.
It will take time for the humans to get used to VAR!
If there was one they need to dial down the sensitivity setting. Not all contact is a foul imo or handballs ?

 

[Saoirse]

There could be a lot of penalties for a while when this is introduced in the PL, which will reduce the number of upsets a fair bit.

 

[fluffybunnyuk]

I wonder which team will figure to aim for hitting arms in the penalty box to gain penalties first. I fancy a bet on a record number of pens this season.

 

[Japhet]

It’s not even soft, it’s non existent

It's not non existent. There is a bit of contact where Semedo knocks the Swiss guy's foot which causes him to trip himself up. When you consider how many PKs are given for a hand on the shoulder or a tiny pull back, I don't think it's soft the way the rules are applied. What I do think is wrong though, is deeming small amounts of contact to be fouls. I'd prefer it if a foul (or a handball for that matter) had to have an element of intent to be deemed foulplay. To put things into context though, I played football as a centre back so I'm bound to biased.

 

[Lighty64]

after watching the England v Switzerland match yesterday, thing VAR is going to see a lot of goals ruled out next season if we in the UK follow the same protocol, but more penalties for handball going by the women's WC match.

I suggest taking a picnic with you as there could be a few intervals per match

 

[SteveH]

VAR is at the bigging of a long journey and with it a steep learning curve for ALL involved.
One is for sure, like it or loathe it, VAR is here to stay in one form or another.
So suck it up!
Continually bleating about will just raise your blood pressure

 

[easley91]

I am good with it if the correct decision is made in the end. It's the length of time (will improve with more use I'm sure) and the taking away of celebrations that I may ever be on board with. See the celebrations when Lingard scored v Holland and Wilson yesterday. Also, I know we profited off it, but the emotion City showed was taken an away. May need get used to, but early feelings are I am reluctant to celebrate a goal if watching at home or on screen.

 

[SteveH]

I am good with it if the correct decision is made in the end. It's the length of time (will improve with more use I'm sure) and the taking away of celebrations that I may ever be on board with. See the celebrations when Lingard scored v Holland and Wilson yesterday. Also, I know we profited off it, but the emotion City showed was taken an away. May need get used to, but early feelings are I am reluctant to celebrate a goal if watching at home or on screen.

Will take some considerable time for us ALL to come to terms with it.
The governing bodies know full well it all needs speeding up.
Felt sorry for Lingard and the lads yesterday, but like us, they will adapt.
Or moan themselves into an early grave, judging by listening to the likes of Jonathan Pearce yesterday.

 

[Gb160]

I am good with it if the correct decision is made in the end. It's the length of time (will improve with more use I'm sure) and the taking away of celebrations that I may ever be on board with. See the celebrations when Lingard scored v Holland and Wilson yesterday. Also, I know we profited off it, but the emotion City showed was taken an away. May need get used to, but early feelings are I am reluctant to celebrate a goal if watching at home or on screen.

This is the main issue for me, its going to completely change the way goals are celebrated by both fans and players.
Those moments, when you completely lose your shit celebrating, are going to be more and more diluted as we get accustomed to VAR, until eventually they'll be saved for thing like penalties which are quite few and far between...even then they'll be using VAR to see if any player encroached the area or if the keeper went too early.

I love those moments, they're a massive part of watching the game.

 

[1882andallthat]

I wonder which team will figure to aim for hitting arms in the penalty box to gain penalties first. I fancy a bet on a record number of pens this season.

I think we've got a pretty good idea which team (that includes Sadio Mane amongst it's ranks) will be first out of the blocks with this one ...

I wonder which team will figure to aim for hitting arms in the penalty box to gain penalties first. I fancy a bet on a record number of pens this season.

 

[easley91]

Will take some considerable time for us ALL to come to terms with it.
The governing bodies know full well it all needs speeding up.
Felt sorry for Lingard and the lads yesterday, but like us, they will adapt.
Or moan themselves into an early grave, judging by listening to the likes of Jonathan Pearce yesterday.

Thing is it ultimately was the correct decision in both games. Though if no VAR that Lingard offside may not have been given in the end as it was incredibly close.

 

[cwy21]

This is the main issue for me, its going to completely change the way goals are celebrated by both fans and players.

A large number of post match football related discussions have become more and more about referee complaints. Every thread on here. Every post match interview with managers. Every week on MOTD. Half the articles written during the week. Referees became the person to blame for every team that didn't win the title and for every manager who had a bad run of form. So that's why we have VAR. So the idea of complaining about it changing how goals are celebrated seems absurd to me. Why didn't people think of that when they were begging for some sort of video review system every time a decision went against their team?

 

[Gb160]

A large number of post match football related discussions have become more and more about referee complaints. Every thread on here. Every post match interview with managers. Every week on MOTD. Half the articles written during the week. Referees became the person to blame for every team that didn't win the title and for every manager who had a bad run of form. So that's why we have VAR. So the idea of complaining about it changing how goals are celebrated seems absurd to me. Why didn't people think of that when they were begging for some sort of video review system every time a decision went against their team?

Well you obviously haven't been listening enough mate.
It's been mentioned loads, Poch himself has even commented on it a few times:

Football is a game of emotions and we have to be careful not to kill it. If I can’t shout when we score, because we have to wait two minutes for a decision, will I buy a ticket?

It seems people were far too caught up in 'getting the correct decision'...in an ideal world then yes we'd all like the correct decision every time, but the current implementation seems to sacrifice everything in order to achieve it.
As Paul Hawksbee said yesterday 'It completely sucks the joy out of football'.

 

[teok]

It only "sucks the joy out of football" for the people that are celebrating the wrongly awarded goal. Why should their emotions get higher priority than what actually happened?

As with all these things they are going to take time to bed in. For the fans, players, officials. The var job will be a highly specialised one which will be highly paid. Quickly assessing video footage. The current people are basically learning on the job.

 

[wirE]

I wonder which team will figure to aim for hitting arms in the penalty box to gain penalties first. I fancy a bet on a record number of pens this season.

Everything is a handball nowadays....

 

[Gb160]

It only "sucks the joy out of football" for the people that are celebrating the wrongly awarded goal. Why should their emotions get higher priority than what actually happened?

As with all these things they are going to take time to bed in. For the fans, players, officials. The var job will be a highly specialised one which will be highly paid. Quickly assessing video footage. The current people are basically learning on the job.

Nonsense.
Even rightly awarded goals won't be celebrated with the same vigour at the time because of the time it takes to get the clarification....that's every single goal.
No matter how good the VAR officials get, there will always be a delay, that delay is the problem.

 

[0-Tibsy-0]

I dislike VAR.

But the whole system is a made a farce by illogical laws (such as the handball definition), which isn't the fault of the system particularly. This could easily be changed and only takes a committee of people who have actual experience of match scenarios - so players, managers and referees in combination, for instance, looking at the laws of the game.

I still have major complaints on the negative influence to passionate fans watching live (the delays/not being able to wholeheartedly celebrate a goal etc).

It's also going to sanitise the game, just as they are sanitising football crowds, support and the conversation around football.

 

[Krule]

The danger is that in 50 years time people will be going to a football match and only finding out the actual score 3hrs after coming home and the game has been completely analysed ten times by a computer.....sad.