Are you, like me still (just) in that you think VAR will eventually be the right way forward for OUR game, because it will correct significant injustices?
Have you been watching the Women’s World Cup carefully to see what we are letting ourselves in for next season? I have, and I think we may not be ready.
First let’s put aside what most of us would agree with is the main current reason for controversy, that being the changes in the offside, handball and penalty rules. Is the Premier League ready for VAR?
Have our referees had enough training? Surely a way of making the decisions much more quickly is required. Is fifteen minutes of extra time largely through VAR decisions, acceptable for the Premier League?
Football is about momentum, next thing we know we will have Diana Ross singing on the centre spot as they make their decisions. There was a German League game last season involving Freiburg, when an incident occurred just before the halftime whistle. The players all went off with that whistle and then had to be brought back on to the pitch as the VAR decision meant the half should not have finished! And this is in Germany where they are “experienced” in using the system!!
Can the refs be miked up so the crowd can be told what is being assessed? Should the crowd see the replays? Will they revolt? Last night it was because the players saw the replay that THEY kicked off!
What about the technology? Are the cameras always level with the incident, or even on the right side? Is the action stopped on the right frame for the VAR decision makers?
I am worried. What do you think at this point before the trauma even begins?
Written by LBG
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The VAR technology works perfectly enough, but the implementation by off & on field officials is causing the problems and I think that the FA has been proved correct in holding off from introducing it to our Premier & Football League games. In fact I’d advise giving at least one more year to speed up the process, keep the stadium fans informed and train referees to use as a support tool rather than the ‘comfort blanket’ referred to by one pundit recently.
There’s really no requirement to rush this into use is there?, after all we’ve done OK without for the history of the game.
Thanks for the heading Editor! (What’s wrong with “shitty” refs?
Self Righteous, agree totally. We are not ready. Use in Carrier Bag Cup, but generally another year off required, and in the meantime change those stupid rules you dumbarse rule makers!!
Hi LBG, it’s not me being a prude, WordPress filter out and will not publish posts containing swear words … I was worried that “shitty” would come into that category and therefore your post would have been binned!
I think the biggest problem in last night’s debacle was that the referee was not strong enough. She was pushed and ignored by the Cameroon captain. They refused to restart the game when the referee instructed them, they came off the line twice before the indirect free kick. If she’d been tough from the start, those incidents could have been avoided.
There should be a retrospective red card for spitting, and the yellow for that last minute foul should have been a red.
As for VAR. It will be good for the game when they get it right. It is ridiculous that offside decisions can come down to a millimetre, there has to be a margin equivalent to human reaction time. If the margin is that fine, then the freeze frame itself is seldom at the precise moment the ball is kicked.
Similarly with the goalkeepers coming off their line. The only way for a keeper to get the necessary momentum to make a save is now for them to stand behind the line and to move forward as the ball is kicked … hoping that some part of one foot is on the line. If this rule is brought in, the stuttering run up has to be banned.
Pete on
Agree with your comment on effectiveness of ref last night, and would add the elbow in the face in the first ten mins to the “red” card incidents. Also agree, as I said in the post, changes to the laws will produce havoc next season here.
By the way welcome to you and Self Righteous if you are new to the blog. ( SR, like the cut of your blog name!)
Admin
No aspersions casted. Thanks again for putting my thoughts up this morning.
Good Post, LBG,
VAR has certainly released a fine kettle of fish for the women’s games this summer, and no doubt for the premier League next season.
The professional leagues in Italy, Spain, Germany, France Australia and the US have already started using VAR – the first two since 2017.
I was infuriated when a Lacazzete goal was disallowed by an assistant referee last season, and a video later showed it was off-side by the the ubiquitous toe-nail.
It is doubtful the Lino could have judged that and he got it right by luck.
A VAR video would have shown the same thing, and on the principle, a woman cannot be a bit pregnant, it holds that a player cannot factually be a bit ‘not – offside’.
It was put forward by FIFA that VAR would correct obvious errors or incidents missed by the referee, such as the goal scored by England in the SA World Cup, and where there was no facility to appeal or check it. The ball was a yard over the line but ‘not seen’ or allowed by the ref — disaster, for the England fans and made FIFA look stupid.
In those circumstances, VAR would have been a good idea.
However, one of the problems of checking VAR videos is that they are not in 3D and are sometimes open to subjective interpretations in certain cases, as you said, cameras may not pick up all the details.
At the moment, time is not stopped, as in Rugby League and Union, while the video is checked, and if it takes 15 minutes for some official to check, the clock just keeps on running, which is ridiculous.
No one can turn back the ‘clock’ in life, and technology is here to stay, and will get better, like the goal-line video checks to prove a goal had been scored or not.
Most of us now accept that as a sensible and fair improvement.
So factual checks are fine — goal scored? yes/no — obvious errors, like booking the wrong player — and catching someone punching another player behind the refs back are fine — where the problem starts is when we go back to the human interpretation of a video – which, like now, can be wrong.
Very topical post, nice one LBG.
I’ve not got a problem with VAR in the EPL itself, but I have with the guys implementing it, they’re still the same fallible group who failed to provide a single official for the last World Cup, but they’ve all we’ve got so enjoy the ride…
VAR is going to take something away from the game, the immediacy of enjoying a goal, but if it rights a lot of wrongs, then I guess it has to happen.
I’m still broadly in favour of VAR – and it’s not going away – that is until we have a ‘good goal’ disallowed, then I’ll be very very upset…
VAR was used last season in England = in the semi-finals and final of the FA Cup — I do not remember it causing any major (or minor) problems – can anyone else remember any incidents?
In professional cricket, and rugby codes their equivalent of VAR seem to be widely accepted by the fans, and don’t take long to adjudicate.
Kev,
We said much the same thing within a minute of each other — your comment was shorter and better! 😁
I’m all for ooh ah VAR, how long that will last – I don’t know, probably until the first dodgy decision takes place!! Then I’ll be like scrap it, get rid 😀
Be interesting to see if certain teams are still favoured more than others though (like your Uniteds & Liverpools)
Oh my word, the Zaha rumours are back in full swing – oh purlease 🙏🙏🙏
LBG
Yes I’m very recent and my blog name isn’t randomly selected.
I would just love it if Spain did a VAR assisted job on the US today.😇
Thanks LBG, I’d forgotten the elbow, I agree that should also be a straight red.
I understand why Phil Neville said what he did after the game and would agree about the bad advert for women’s football as regards the petulance, but I would say that the ferocity of the tackles and the determination of the players (when demonstrated without violent conduct) was a further sign of how women’s football has progressed.
Sorry this isn’t about VAR, but I’ve just seen an article about Ssnchez scoring twice (yes you read that right – twice) for Chile & now some gooners are drooling, saying we should re-sign him!! Would anyone on here welcome him back??
I know I certainly wouldn’t! Someone with a similar work rate yes, just not him!
VAR is not perfect at present but I thought that was the whole point of trials such as the one we’re having now. With regard to extra time in the Cameroon game VAR was not totally responsible for the extra 15 minutes as you suggest, a large part of that came from the player huddles and blatant simulated injury antics of Cameroon. In this particular game in my view more attention should be directed to having Cameroon removed from international football until they can accept the officials decisions, their very questionable actions were to be seen in their game against the Netherlands, so not a first, and, FIFA or UEFA should take action now.
Hi Trugun. I agree. I’d also question the role of the Cameroon manager who seemed as incensed as his players at decisions which although VAR proved correct, they had decided were the result of bias.
Red, shorter yes, but better, not sure about that but thanks.
Good point Red about the FACup, not that I watched any of the games or the highlights tbh, but yeah there was zero controversy.
Zaha seems to be the flavour of the week and we do need some pace in our attack, I’m 50/50 on that one.
Can someone point me to where I can read the new rule for handball offside etc
https://www.goal.com/en-gb/news/football-rule-changes-what-are-the-new-additions-to-2019-20/1nt8llqwfqkje1qe1qbwdct06a
None of you could acknowledge that ref was wrong to award free kick that led to first goal(that was never a back pass). Cameroon equaliser was not a clear offside even with the VAR snapshots. If truly that ref was on top of her job, those 2 incidents would have changed the game. Those girls were right to vent their frustrations perhaps they went too far but we couldn’t judge them right in our own relaxed mood. Meanwhile, VAR is good enough to improve the game but it’s susceptible to human errors of judgement. There would be more dramas in EPL for sure
Thank rasp
LBG, good topic, but nothing good is going to come of it.
Would rather just have 4 referee’s on the pitch, 2 in each half-afterall we are playing a human game right?
The nfL and the nbA use it and the games absolutely blow when it, the interpretation of the rules becomes the game. Have seen if before hundreds of times, stop the game, analyze everything in slow motion, which many times makes things worse, especially fouls, than get back to the referee sometime later taking the flow out of the game.
But, if commercialism is the way forward we have a hit, games will be longer, more advertising will take place, and all the businesses will be salivating as their captive audience’s eyes are glued to the telly.
Just a rant…We are also apparently monitoring Thauvin…Let it be a rumour like the one for Lucas Vazquez…For the same price, there are better players. Tierney wants to join Arsenal but Arsenal needs to table 20 Mln EUr + 5 Mln bonus.
As for the VAR, I am a fan of it although it can be used more efficiently.
Ola Lad
Have to disagree with both your comments proving VAR will still be about interpretation of the law. The Cameroonian defender miss controlled the ball with her in step backwards towards her goalkeeper who should not have chanced picking it up. The ball did not come off another part of the leg as in by accident, as commented by pundits after the game. Unlucky but goalkeeper should have cleared with boot.
As we have seen before, PROVIDED THEY GET THE OFFSIDE LINE ACCURATELY PLACED ON THE VAR SCREEN, that tinest toe or boot lace is offside. Shit rule isn’t it!
England squad has a really good chance of reaching at least the semi finals. They are in the good side of the draw. Let s c.
I have officiated where something like VAR was used and it was effective only if the people using it (game officials and VAR monitors) were well trained and familiar with it. I have also officiated with 4 officials (2 on-field and 2 assistants), as well as (2 on field and 2 goal-line) but none of these experiments could match VAR, when properly used. I even officiated in an experiment with the offside line being static (in the NASL exhibition season3) but that wasn’t effective.
RN had a decent gams
I’m glad Uruguay beat Chile (thank you Cavani!!) Torreira didn’t play though, maybe he will in the QF…
Uruguay v Peru, Colombia v Chile, Venezuela v Argentina, Brazil v Paraguay – should be good!!
On the subject of Torreira, I’m hoping all these stories about him wanting to leave us, are just typical media BS… they’re not going away though, which is a little worrying.. I don’t want him to go & especially not to that snake Gazidis at AC Milan!
Apparently Ndidi from Leicester is not against leaving Leicester and Vidal is being pushed out of Barcelona. Two accessible and quality targets especially if you are keen to add Lauren type of players to the team.
LT – Ndidi – Vidal – First team
AMN – Chambers – Guendouzi – Support team
I ll try to write a post about why we need two players in midfield this week
Morning all ….
…. New post … written by Els
Psg r ready to let Neymar go but not Cavani… Cavani is such a great player with amazing attitude. At PSG, we re replacing Neymar with Sarabia from Sevilla and we re going to play in a 4312 apparently with
Sarabia – Cavani, Mbappe as our starters
Midfield will be apparently Milinko Savic or Allan joining us to partner with Verratti and Di Maria
Di Maria, Ms, Verratti
And we are in the market for a new LB and RB. Rose and Sessegnon are followed on the left and Guerreiro on the right
Areola – Rose, Marqui, Silva, Guerreiro – Di Maria, MS, Verratti – Sarabia – Cavani, Mbappe