The VAR Thread

[Krule]

VAR arrives next season....

https://www.bbc.com/sport/football/46224473

Video assistant referees are set to be used in the Premier League next season, after clubs agreed in principle to their introduction.
The Premier League will now make a formal request to the International Football Association Board and Fifa.

There will be some interesting incidents next season and some questionable decisions using this method but all in all I welcome it's introduction....

 

[Dougal]

Be just our luck to finally have some dodgy decisions go our way for the first time in years only to see VAR overrule them. Fucking VAR with its stupid technology and stuff.

 

[Shadydan]

God bless Charlie Adam ?

 

[spursfan77]

Be just our luck to finally have some dodgy decisions go our way for the first time in years only to see VAR overrule them. Fucking VAR with its stupid technology and stuff.

I think it’s a certainty. Arsenal will also benefit from it somehow, after being the main ones to benefit with it not being present over the last 50 years!

 

[Marty]

God bless Charlie Adam ?

Charlie Austin, surely?

Charlie Adam can rot in hell.

 

[Shadydan]

Charlie Austin, surely?

Charlie Adam can rot in hell.

Haha yeah

 

[Rocksuperstar]

Lets all face it, this was always going to happen and while i'm skeptical about the whole thing, especially considering the way it's been used so far, it will become slicker. The refs will probably end up wearing Samsung's on their wrist or some junk so they won't even need to run to the side of the pitch and just receive a feed directly to the device from someone in the TV editing suite, but even in it's current form the players, refs and managers will get used to it and we'll practically forget it's even there until a decision goes against us then we'll hate it again.

The game changes, it's probably for the best considering how much rides on football now, how massive the investments are, but they've changed the off-side rule so many times in the last fifteen years and we tend to just sigh and shrug and accept that we'll have to start using the vinegar as well as the salt, pepper, ketchup and two coins to explain the off-side rule when in a cafe, so they'll twink the rules with VAR and in a few years it'll just be something else we oldies can say, "never had that in my day" about.

 

['O Zio]

About time IMO. Just need to figure out the balance i.e. make sure it's only used when really necessary and the HAVE to start showing the replays in the stadium/being clear about what they're actually looking for.

For what it's worth, I reckon before using VAR the refs should have to specifically request what they want to be looking at i.e. they should have to have a concrete incident that they want to double-check rather than just "let's check everything on the off chance". So, for example, if a goal is scored but they weren't sure if a player was offside, they should have to refer to VAR and say "I just want to check if Player X was onside when the cross came in" and then that's the only thing they look at. That way VAR would only be used when there was genuinely something that the ref needed to check, rather than them going to it for every incident out of fear of making a mistake,.

 

[Timberwolf]

About time IMO. Just need to figure out the balance i.e. make sure it's only used when really necessary and the HAVE to start showing the replays in the stadium/being clear about what they're actually looking for.

For what it's worth, I reckon before using VAR the refs should have to specifically request what they want to be looking at i.e. they should have to have a concrete incident that they want to double-check rather than just "let's check everything on the off chance". So, for example, if a goal is scored but they weren't sure if a player was offside, they should have to refer to VAR and say "I just want to check if Player X was onside when the cross came in" and then that's the only thing they look at. That way VAR would only be used when there was genuinely something that the ref needed to check, rather than them going to it for every incident out of fear of making a mistake,.

That makes sense.

VAR is at it's worst when the refs are fearful and use it as a crutch. In that godawful blizzard at Wembley last season the ref was weak and ended up checking every bloody goal and offside. The officials were obviously not well trained and spent about 2 minutes poring over the footage searching for any hint of a foul and the game descended into farce.

If VAR is used sparingly but decisively it'll be an asset and improve the league. The refs just need to be strong and not be overawed by it.

 

['O Zio]

That makes sense.

VAR is at it's worst when the refs are fearful and use it as a crutch. In that godawful blizzard at Wembley last season the ref was weak and ended up checking every bloody goal and offside. The officials were obviously not well trained and spent about 2 minutes poring over the footage searching for any hint of a foul and the game descended into farce.

If VAR is used sparingly but decisively it'll be an asset and improve the league. The refs just need to be strong and not be overawed by it.

Agree. That game was a perfect example of how it should NOT be used. The replay should be only used in two scenarios IMO:

1. To overrule the on-field ref if he has made a clear and obvious error. This does NOT mean whether someones nose hair was 1mm offside or not because that's not clear and obvious. This should be for things like:
   • Off-the-ball incidents that the ref missed e.g. Zidane headbut, stamping, spitting etc.
   • Dangerous play that the ref missed i.e. when someone flies in with their studs up at knee height but the ref doesn't see in full speed how bad a tackle it was and only gives a free kick
   • Obvious handballs that the ref didn't see
   • Blatantly incorrect offside decisions where there's no doubt about it
2. When the ref thinks he saw something but couldn't be sure and wants to check it. But as mentioned above, the ref should have to request a specific incident they want to look at, they can't just go to VAR on the off-chance that something may have been wrong

 

[buckley]

Just a thought and that is that if VAR was in use in 1960s we would have almost certainly been the first British club to win the european cup along with the first winners of cup winners cup against Athletico Madrid and the newly named EUFA cup against wolves.
Take note that in the semi final of the european against Benfica we had three goals disallowed one by Smith and two by Greaves and every witness to a man say's that both Jimmys goals were well onside and Smiths borderline. This was in the day's of the most dubious decision's you could imagine with bent referees and one ref who managed Notts Forest in a game admitted taking bribes after the event of course. Note that Benfica went on to thrash Real Madrid in the final

 

[TheChosenOne]

Arsenal and Liverpool will have a lot to lose when this does come in.

 

[nailsy]

This should improve the game, but I really dislike the way that top flight football is becoming different to the lower league game.

 

[buckley]

Nailsy has a point but for myself the gulf in difference between lower league and top division is so great that this var thing is not going to change the difference by much at all and if you can prevent raging errors you should try to do so and I say bring it on sooner rather than later.

 

[truebluespur]

We have it in Australia. To be honest, it has been nothing short of completely horrible. A massive blight on the game. On the other hand our refs are crap.

 

[luRRka]

We have it in Australia. To be honest, it has been nothing short of completely horrible. A massive blight on the game. On the other hand our refs are crap.

I think that's the main problem. As mentioned above, as long as it is used sensibly it can only be a good thing. See this years world cup for example

 

[spursfan77]

It will be shit for us in the stadium though. Of that I have no doubt.

 

['O Zio]

We have it in Australia. To be honest, it has been nothing short of completely horrible. A massive blight on the game. On the other hand our refs are crap.

I think the main problems I've seen with VAR so far have all been caused by the referees/powers that be not being clear about when/how it should be used. VAR itself isn't the problem, it's the ad hoc way it's been implemented that's the problem.

 

[King of Otters]

Not for me, Clive.

 

[Danners9]

We have it in Australia. To be honest, it has been nothing short of completely horrible. A massive blight on the game. On the other hand our refs are crap.

It's true that the refs are crap. Part time, I think?

The World Cup showed VAR can be used properly. The A-League this season and last season has shown that you can give them the tools but if they don't know how to use it then there will be chaos. The last 2 weeks has been better - but most games during those first two weeks were a mess.

The people reviewing the footage were being too picky and the refs were panicking and overruling what they saw because they were told there was something to look at - so they found something to see.

I hope the Premier League uses it properly but I bet it will take half a season to get right.