I think scrapping VAR altogether is a massive backwards step. It's by no means perfect and I've certainly had issues with some of the decisions, but to say there is no space for video referees when basically every other sport manages it pretty well reflects very badly on the PL and their attitude towards officiating.
I also think it's rather short sighted to completely remove it. Not that there aren't flaws with it but often I think that's down to either the vagueness (what does clear & obvious mean?), the often long times taken with zero information for the crowd, and those ridiculous offsides (more an issue with the ruling rather than the tech).
Not been helped by it being used as a scapegoat by clubs and pundits. Wolves proposing it (presumably with Forest) is amusing given that it corrected a penalty being given when the foul was out of the box. Though as it went against them probably just upset about it.
If they did remove it you know 100% there would be a clear offside not given in the first game. Then the clamour for it to come back would be everywhere. Thus the cycle repeats without anything actually being solved.
The biggest problem seems to be Team A getting the VAR to call out incidents to the referee - and Team B in a different match not getting VAR to call out the exact same type of incidents. So human inconsistency is playing way too big a part currently. Teams just don't know what sort of mood their assigned VAR team are going to be in on the day.
Probably better off just sticking to goal line tech and improving the offside tech so it somehow tracks it almost instantly and you know within a few seconds.
Has VAR made the game better? More fun to watch? More exciting? If not then really what is the point? It seems to have made officials less prone to actually making decisions and relying on the tech. It needs binning.
1 - Offsides were always like this pre-VAR. Certainly does affect the stadium though but wouldn't it be better for decisions to be correct?
2 - Solved by showing the footage on screens or having the official broadcast over the PA. Aussies have started doing the latter.
3 - No different from chanting against the referees getting it wrong or the protests against the league before.
4 - Again, fixable. Doesn't help that it often has the same inconsistent decision making that we've seen pre-VAR.
5 - Refs need to have more accountability. But it's not helped by players being utter arseholes to them (I.e. surrounding them or being Bruno Fernandes). Managers and pundits also contribute to the erosion of authority.
6 - Continued errors have been a problem. Would be interesting to see some independent stats of decisions that have been corrected though. But pre-VAR had the same issue anyway.
7 - Added time wasn't too bad before this season and the new procedures to minimise time wasting. Again can solve things here by changing procedures.
8 - Again, constant discourse happened before VAR.
9 - Weird one here, but again, corruption claims have been going on for ages before VAR. Drogba after THAT Champions League game anyone?
If we stick with VAR, the main thing for me is that there has to be some change to either the offside law or the interpretation of it. I don't think anyone wants to see goals disallowed because after 5 minutes of scrutiny it appears that the attackers shoulder might have been 1mm in front of the defender based on a still which may or may not be from the exact moment the ball was played anyway.
The reason for the law was to stop goal-hanging, I'm not sure any "advantage" gained by these mm level decisions needs to be accounted for. How you go about doing that is another question, but it's clear that the current process is applying the law to an absurd degree and certainly isn't adding anything to the sport.
sawyerpip wrote:If we stick with VAR, the main thing for me is that there has to be some change to either the offside law or the interpretation of it. I don't think anyone wants to see goals disallowed because after 5 minutes of scrutiny it appears that the attackers shoulder might have been 1mm in front of the defender based on a still which may or may not be from the exact moment the ball was played anyway.
The reason for the law was to stop goal-hanging, I'm not sure any "advantage" gained by these mm level decisions needs to be accounted for. How you go about doing that is another question, but it's clear that the current process is applying the law to an absurd degree and certainly isn't adding anything to the sport.
The offside law is bullshit in its current form. This nonsense about "his arm was just offside" is a joke. All players wear trackers to monitor performance at the moment. That tracker could be used to gauge position, the same as goal line technology. If your tracker is further forward than either one of the last two opposing players' tracker when a ball is played to you, you are offside. That's it, no more line drawing bullshit, do it automatically.
1 - Offsides were always like this pre-VAR. Certainly does affect the stadium though but wouldn't it be better for decisions to be correct?
2 - Solved by showing the footage on screens or having the official broadcast over the PA. Aussies have started doing the latter.
3 - No different from chanting against the referees getting it wrong or the protests against the league before.
4 - Again, fixable. Doesn't help that it often has the same inconsistent decision making that we've seen pre-VAR.
5 - Refs need to have more accountability. But it's not helped by players being utter arseholes to them (I.e. surrounding them or being Bruno Fernandes). Managers and pundits also contribute to the erosion of authority.
6 - Continued errors have been a problem. Would be interesting to see some independent stats of decisions that have been corrected though. But pre-VAR had the same issue anyway.
7 - Added time wasn't too bad before this season and the new procedures to minimise time wasting. Again can solve things here by changing procedures.
8 - Again, constant discourse happened before VAR.
9 - Weird one here, but again, corruption claims have been going on for ages before VAR. Drogba after THAT Champions League game anyone?
I agree with this and think your suggestions are sensible. It's interesting to see quite a nuanced view towards VAR on here and a general desire to acknowledge the very real issues without throwing the baby out with the bathwater. You never see that sort of view in the media - it's always some dinosaur ex-pro saying "i'M a TrAdItIoNaLiSt Me!"
I remember being so, so angry about decisions before VAR came in. People are acting like there was a perfect system which VAR stamped all over, when in actual fact the standard of officiating was quite often terrible. Look at the Championship - there's terrible decisions there every week according to the fans in here that follow it and, shock horror, no VAR! DML mentioned the quality of EFL refs just the other week. It's almost as if the problem is the individuals doing the refereeing and not any system they do or don't use! I'm well aware I've got some pretty outspoken views about refereeing which a lot of people may take issue with, but every time this comes up nobody addresses the PGMOL shaped elephant in the room - they just want to throw out the DEMON TECHNOLOGY on principle. It's all calcifying, populist nonsense that is designed to stop people from being open to new ideas.
One other thing that annoys me about the debate is the pedestal on which we place "fans in the ground", like they're somehow better than fans who have to watch on TV. I'm really happy that someone might live around the corner from their club and can walk to the turnstile every fortnight and get a ticket - enjoy it! I'm not that fortunate. I grew up walking distance from Highbury (stealth edit: I obviously used to get the bus because I'm lazy, but I could walk if I had to...), and used to go when I could. I think it held about 60k+ as a terrace, but after going all seater was 38k. This was not enough for a club of Arsenal's size/quality/popularity in the mid-late 90s so I didn't go nearly as much as I would've liked. I then moved 200 miles away, adding an extra layer of complexity, and now there are ballots for all the games I don't even know if I can get a ticket full stop before I even think about travel! Going to games is difficult for me despite really wanting to, yet you get people saying I should belt up and accept terrible decisions because someone who is in the ground wants to have a good time?! I'm willing to bet that these people are exactly the ones who rail against football being a "pantomime", whilst advocating for poorer quality sport as long as it keeps the audience happy
