VAR and Refs | General Discussion

Anustart89

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Weghorst one is the worst for me. You can argue that the Palace one is a 50/50 that he arrives slightly late to, and that he uses his shoulder etc and that given the high bar for VAR they shouldn’t get involved. I mean, I’d still call you a moron for holding that view, but you could argue that way.

The Weghorst one though… in what rule-book can you have the ball taken away from you and pelt a guy in the shin with the force of a clearance and “no foul” is not a clearly wrong decision?
 

Josep Dowling

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It doesn't even matter what body part it hits first. That was only a thing between 2019 and 2022 . The guidelines got updated in 2019 to say that if it ricochets of another body part onto the arm it's not a handball
This guideline was removed at the start of this season. I still see pundits and now even ex referees quoting it when it's now meaningless.
Isn’t this part of the problem? So many recent rules changes means fans and pundits don’t have a clue what the rules are. This then causes issues when games are analysed. This is as much as a problem as VAR. The handball rules for example is now so complicated a ref can basically decide when they want to give a handball decision.
 

GreenHeron

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Being a ref, or a VAR ref, is not so different to many other jobs. People choose the path of least resistance. If you need to do, or not do, something at work to stop a difficult customer going ape, you do it for a quiet life.

So if Andre Marriner thinks he'll have the Daily Mirror, half of Sky Sports and Jurgen Klopp screaming blue murder for not reviewing Casemiro's slightly high challenge, he'll choose the path of least resistance and review it - even though he's not supposed to re-referee something Taylor saw clearly. At worst he'll have a kindly colleague have a quiet word in his ear for not following protocol, which is definitely preferable to having the press on your back for weeks.

Likewise, easier for Marriner to just ignore the penalty appeals as by doing so he'll avoid most of the flack.

Taylor, well the scousers and their pliant friends in the media did a fabulous job of planting a story out there that he might be a Man United fan, so in his head every decision he gives in United's favour, or doesn't give in the oppo's favour, will inevitably lead to this being raised again.

To be honest I can see that it won't be pleasant for them.

It also shows that the refereeing bodies are doing an appalling job of (a) defending referees for making correct but massively unpopular decisions (think the Rashford goal v City, the refs were just hung out to dry whereas they should have been very publicly backed) and (b) holding referees to account for the mistakes or omissions they do make.

They really must do much better.

And as for United, I really can't see any alternative but to play the media game just as hard. Put pressure on the referees pre game, very publicly state that referees have one job, which is to call the game correctly, regardless of how the media might report it. Put pressure on the refereeing bodies.
 

edcunited1878

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Remember the handball on Soares or the Arsenal fullback last year? He fell on his ass on the edge of the box, was crawling, and then even if he's trying to avoid not falling flat on his face, the ball is there and he knocks the ball with his hand/arm and it goes away from the United player. That's a handball all damn day.

 

Jeppers7

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Remember the handball on Soares or the Arsenal fullback last year? He fell on his ass on the edge of the box, was crawling, and then even if he's trying to avoid not falling flat on his face, the ball is there and he knocks the ball with his hand/arm and it goes away from the United player. That's a handball all damn day.

This one actually makes me laugh when I watch it. There were some posters on here that actually watched that and said it wasn’t a pen ! He tackles him with his hand, scoops the ball away. It doesn’t just touch his hand. Then with the one on Sunday he decides to try and head a ball that’s coming in at two foot high and ends up stopping the ball going to a United player with his arm.
Neither of those should need explaining. They are penalties 100% and if a rule makes them not pens then the rule is stupid.
 

Shane88

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There is no set rules anymore.

They change from game to game, ref to ref, VAR official to VAR official, narrative to narrative.

It is becoming WWE-esque.
 

Niall

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So a player, who has no visibility of the ball as it’s behind him, gets a handball against him as the ball grazes his arm while he falls to the ground after challenging for a header.

Meanwhile player has full sight of the ball as he falls to the ground and ball hits his arm full on (ie Sunday at OT). No handball.

I thought VAR was going to make referee decision making more consistent.

Absolute madness :mad:
 

Jordan_mufc

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Some absolute criminal decisions going City's way in this game.

That penalty was one of the worst decisions I've seen

Ederson cleaning out a Leipzig player and getting a free kick for it
 

Rozay

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Shocking display. This ref must be a City fan. Ridiculous penalty, allowed Ederson to blatantly take out Laimer then inexplicably refused to book Grealish for his latest dive, despite clearly spotting it.
 

Samid

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Shocking display. This ref must be a City fan. Ridiculous penalty, allowed Ederson to blatantly take out Laimer then inexplicably refused to book Grealish for his latest dive, despite clearly spotting it.
Haaland fouled the goalie for 2-0 too. Basically every fecking decision in this game has been bent.
 

Ludens the Red

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This is corruption. There is no other explanation.
Yep, fully on board with this now. I don’t think it’s Barcelona type corruption where the officials seek to benefit a specific team. I think it might be betting based. VAR has basically given them the opportunity to change not just their mind but rules too.
They can now basically construct games how they see fit. The only reasoning I can see for it is gambling. There’s huge amounts of money to be paid by several markets. Penalties, yellow card points, red card, etc etc.
 

Abhinav

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Since I started watching football some 25 years back, football matches have always been at the mercy of some absolutely horrible ref performance and decisions.
However, with VAR, refereeing has just become farcical. It seems the officials can make up whatever interpretation of the laws they like and change the course of any match. The more time & replays the ref have access to, the more they have the possibility to screw things up.
It seems strange that football is the only sport where technology has made the officiating worse than pre technology days.
With the Barcelona scandal, its make it really tough to believe which decision is accidental and which is intentional.
Someone needs to clean this mess up.
 

Mb194dc

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Pretty clear pro English team bias in the CL it seems. Never a pen and clear foul by Ederson...
 

Goldfiessli

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Football is supposed to be a simple game. VAR is trying its hardest to change that, which is not good for anybody. Wish we could go back to life without VAR, but it seems impossible at the moment
 

cyberman

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Football is supposed to be a simple game. VAR is trying its hardest to change that, which is not good for anybody. Wish we could go back to life without VAR, but it seems impossible at the moment
Not watching the game, has VAR overruled the ref in many decisions tonight?
 

RedRocket9908

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"The proximity of the player whose hand or arm makes contact with the ball to where the ball was struck from will still be an important consideration for officials when making a decision to award handball or not."

This doesnt seem to have been taken in to consideration on City's penalty.
 

BayernFan87

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I was a huge fan of the idea of the VAR. Because for some negative aspects (more delays, maybe a bit less emotions) at least everyone thought that football would become fairer, right?

But the decisions are even more of a joke now. For some time i thought its only the Bundesliga refs and VARs messing up but its the same in the CL and EL.

Its a shame and the VAR should be removed again.
I wonder when the first big teams and leagues will push for it.