Get rid of VAR NOW! We want our game back! (...or not, some are happy)

[golden_blunder]

It took nine minutes and the ref didn’t even change his original decision. The VAR made absolutely no difference to the game, just made an absolute mockery of it for taking nine minutes.

I swear VAR diehards have absolutely no feel for the game. If anyone finds that kind of delay acceptable we might as well be watching different sports.

Agreed. Next stop, 10 minute breaks for ads at every quarter.

Football has played “to the whistle” for hundreds of years, anything that takes more than 1 minute to review is a no from me. Your team might lose its advantage from the other team getting a breather. I don’t mind goal line technology but for the rest just raise the standard of refereeing

 

[golden_blunder]

In fact I would argue with VAR that the standard of refereeing will drop off as they become reliant on the system

 

[RK]

There's been a lot of VAR controversy so far despite the decisions generally going against the big teams - e.g. anything against United / Chelsea / City isn't as criticised because most people watching don't want them to win.
My expectation is that when something questionable goes in favour of a big team, we'll see more concrete suggestions to change VAR, for better or worse.

 

[montpelier]

I'm just anticipating it getting worse, we haven't had a double whammy yet. Clear & obvious offside on halfway is ignored because it's too long ago in the game to look at. Attacker then gets given a super-soft pen that they don't change because of the high threshold.

#VARCE

Hopefully it happens to LIverpool.

 

[SuperiorXI]

The consistency isn't there yet... lets hope for the sake of the game it improves.

 

[RochaRoja]

The consistency isn't there yet... lets hope for the sake of the game it improves.

The Liverpool game was a perfect example of inconsistency. Van Dijk was clearly all over Guendouzi for Matip’s goal but it was allowed to stand, while Luiz’s shirt pull on Salah was given as a penalty. The whole point of VAR is supposed to be to remove such inconsistencies and make things “fairer” but the bizarre standard they’ve set for what is and isn’t a “subjective” decision means it’s the complete opposite.

Things that you’d just have shrugged your shoulders at being missed by the ref before become enraging now you know there’s blokes actually watching this happen who can intervene but don’t.

 

[SuperiorXI]

The Liverpool game was a perfect example of inconsistency. Van Dijk was clearly all over Guendouzi for Matip’s goal but it was allowed to stand, while Luiz’s shirt pull on Salah was given as a penalty. The whole point of VAR is supposed to be to remove such inconsistencies and make things “fairer” but the bizarre standard they’ve set for what is and isn’t a “subjective” decision means it’s the complete opposite.

Things that you’d just have shrugged your shoulders at being missed by the ref before become enraging now you know there’s blokes actually watching this happen who can intervene but don’t.

Spot on. Even yesterday's game... we didn't deserve any points but that shirt pulling on Martial is the most obvious of pens... but they didn't give it!

 

[BIGbadBOO4]

I'm sorry I have just seen the Cahill foul and the penalty we should have got when Kelly was rugby tackling Martial, how was that not given a red and a pen? VAR is a joke if they cannot correct that.
Surely the ref and people in charge of VAR should be sacked.

 

[Rafaeldagold]

Wait are you telling me the god send that is var can be inconsistent? Who would’ve guessed when this amazing technology is just another ref looking at a replay.

Who could’ve guessed it couldn’t & wouldn’t work in football. Amazing.

 

[giorno]

Agreed. Next stop, 10 minute breaks for ads at every quarter.

Football has played “to the whistle” for hundreds of years, anything that takes more than 1 minute to review is a no from me. Your team might lose its advantage from the other team getting a breather. I don’t mind goal line technology but for the rest just raise the standard of refereeing

We've tried that for decades. It still lead to stuff like Sane's disallowed goal against liverpool

As technology improves, so will time lost checking go down. At the moment, for the most part most checks take no more than 20-30 seconds

Again, is 5 instances a season of a decision taking a few minutes worthy of avoiding 30 gross, obvious big mistakes? For me yes, abso-fecking-lutely

 

[awop]

Wait are you telling me the god send that is var can be inconsistent? Who would’ve guessed when this amazing technology is just another ref looking at a replay.

Who could’ve guessed it wouldn’t work in football

Wait are you telling me the god send that is var can be inconsistent? Who would’ve guessed when this amazing technology is just another ref looking at a replay.

Who could’ve guessed it couldn’t & wouldn’t work in football. Amazing.

Are you a bot ?

The Liverpool game was a perfect example of inconsistency. Van Dijk was clearly all over Guendouzi for Matip’s goal but it was allowed to stand, while Luiz’s shirt pull on Salah was given as a penalty.

No he wasn't.The Sokratis-Matip duel makes it messy but Van Dijk doesn't do anything wrong there, Guendouzi grabs his shirt, gets pushed by Sokratis and don't manages to jump. Van Dijk's physicality is enough to control Guendouzi.

The Luiz penalty is clear as day, yes it's annoying because there will probably be occasions when the same thing is waived on but Arsenal can't complain about that, just don't be stupid to make such an obvious pull in the box.

For me the weird one was when they took 3 minutes to check for a Sokratis red card when after one replay you can clearly see there's nothing and it's just a coming together.
They need to change this "high treshold" bs, all it does is give a bad rep to the system while overprotecting absolute garbage referees.

 

[sullydnl]

Good point. Has anyone been reffered to the pitch side monitor yet

No, which is rather telling.

If you're going to have VAR then you should commit to it and have proper VAR. Which means you accept the delays it will cause and focus on getting the right decisions as the trade off. If you don't want those delays, don't have VAR.

The PL have opted for a very uncomfortable middle ground where they have VAR but use it in a half-baked way for fear of too many interruptions. Too much weight placed on referees' initial decisions, too little opportunity for them to correct their decisions, too much disparity between the rigour of policing subjective and objective calls, bad practice in terms of instructing linesmen on when to flag for offside, etc.

All of which means the people who don't want VAR are unhappy (because they will object to any disruption caused by VAR anyway) and the people who do want VAR are unhappy (because they don't get the improvement in calls they want). Which seems unsutainable to my mind, particularly as they are recieving little credit for their (very flawed) prioritising of a low number of interventions anyway. They would be better off accepting that they're never going to please the anti-VAR fans and focus on implementing a system that at least pleases those who want VAR.

The system they used at the World Cup was both better and better recieved than the one the PL have implemented, despite the fact that it caused more delays.

 

[ROFLUTION]

VAR strikes again. They check the Silva situation and decide no penalty. Super clear stamp on the foot. Is it 3 blind chimpanzees sitting in that booth?!?

 

[Ainu]

It's seemingly made refs reluctant to call anything, and then they don't even use VAR to rectify their abundant errors. It's made the officiating even worse than the already horrendous state it was in.

 

[Nick7]

I like VAR but it's use this season has been ridiculous. It doesn't help these shitty refs.

 

[sullydnl]

The fault lies with the PL's stupidly high VAR threshold. You'll keep seeing this sort of decision until that changes.

 

[Idxomer]

Seems like they listened and got rid of it.

 

[Makelele]

What VAR does is give people who want to manipulate the game for commercial gain greater power. If you wanted to you could effect the title race and other elements to great effect. Stay awake.

 

[Cloud7]

VAR strikes again. They check the Silva situation and decide no penalty. Super clear stamp on the foot. Is it 3 blind chimpanzees sitting in that booth?!?

The problem lies in the last letter of VAR. It's the same awful referees on the field that are making the calls on VAR.

 

[Sylar]

It's seemingly made refs reluctant to call anything, and then they don't even use VAR to rectify their abundant errors. It's made the officiating even worse than the already horrendous state it was in.

This is the issue. They are scared to overturn refs on subjective calls despite how obvious it is. It seems you need to take somebody's head off for var to overturn the ref

 

[BobbyManc]

Just scrap the whole thing. Pathetic.

 

[ROFLUTION]

What VAR does is give people who want to manipulate the game for commercial gain greater power. If you wanted to you could effect the title race and other elements to great effect. Stay awake.

Quite dangerous - considering how much money at stake by making the league an entertaining one. Another reason why everyone should push for transparency on calls.

 

[clarkydaz]

if that silva penalty wasn't given whilst being checked, there is no point having it

 

[Rafaeldagold]

So happily people are finally waking up to the fact VAR is not & never will be suitable in football.

You get the same amount of inconsistency (all this ‘technology ‘ is is another ref watching a replay) with the added bonus of the game being interrupted & having to check your celebrations for every goal.

It’s a terrible backwards addition to football & needs to go

 

[kouroux]

Shit referees will be shit referees, no matter the tool they use. It reaches a point for certain decisions where the ref is clearly choosing the wrong one on purpose because he doesn't wanna discredit his pal.
It was working fine during the world cup

 

[BlueMoonOutcast]

Another game, another mistake. The Premier League is going down the toilet.

 

[sullydnl]

Shit referees will be shit referees, no matter the tool they use. It reaches a point for certain decisions where the ref is clearly choosing the wrong one on purpose because he doesn't wanna discredit his pal.
It was working fine during the world cup

I really don't think it is the referees' fault. The PL made a big deal about their VAR having a high threshold, which in effect means it is toothless on subjective decisions. There's not a lot referees can do about how they are directed to use VAR.

 

[kouroux]

I really don't think it is the referees' fault. The PL made a big deal about their VAR having a high threshold, which in effect means it is toothless on subjective decisions. There's not a lot referees can do about how they are directed to use VAR.

On the few clear situations that VAR is used and the moron in his office deems that there is no problem, I think the problem is with him.
Martial getting manhandled inside the box and Pawson thinking it's fine, is a major issue

 

[Mrs Smoker]

Another game, another mistake. The Premier League is going down the toilet.

We're all fuming about that Ederson foul.

 

[Fridge chutney]

When you have John Moss as one of your best and most experienced professional referees, not even VAR can save the shower of shite that follows.

 

[BlueMoonOutcast]

We're all fuming about that Ederson foul.

Why? It was a yellow card challenge and he was yellow carded.

 

[Mrs Smoker]

Why? It was a yellow card challenge and he was yellow carded.

Well, obviously not because we think the same.

 

[sullydnl]

On the few clear situations that VAR is used and the moron in his office deems that there is no problem, I think the problem is with him.
Martial getting manhandled inside the box and Pawson thinking it's fine, is a major issue

Again, I think that is largely down to the way they are directed to apply their "high threshold".

The referee tells VAR what he saw and if it roughly tallies with what they see then it stands. In effect though that means VAR will only intervene if the referee has actively missed something (e.g. if he says there was no contact but there was). Whereas if the referee describes what physically happened but interprets it badly then it will stand. So if the ref says "I saw contact but I didn't think it was enough for a penalty" then VAR won't intervene, even if it they think it looked a clear penalty. So you will have situations where VAR think something is a penalty but lets the no penalty decision stand anyway, all because of the PL's stupid emphasis on little intervention.

 

[kouroux]

Again, I think that is largely down to the way they are directed to apply their "high threshold".

The referee tells VAR what he saw and if it roughly tallies with what they see then it stands. In effect though that means VAR will only intervene if the referee has actively missed something (e.g. if he says there was no contact but there was). Whereas if the referee describes what physically happened but interprets it badly then it will stand. So if the ref says "I saw contact but I didn't think it was enough for a penalty" then VAR won't intervene, even if it they think it looked a clear penalty. So you will have situations where VAR think something is a penalty but lets it stand anyway, all because of the PL's stupid emphasis on little intervention.

The high treshold is a convenient excuse for them to hide behind rules. Martial's was as clear as it can get. The core of the problem is the same, the referees are seriously incompetent. The one on the pitch and the one in the booth.

 

[bleedred]

Again, I think that is largely down to the way they are directed to apply their "high threshold".

The referee tells VAR what he saw and if it roughly tallies with what they see then it stands. In effect though that means VAR will only intervene if the referee has actively missed something (e.g. if he says there was no contact but there was). Whereas if the referee describes what physically happened but interprets it badly then it will stand. So if the ref says "I saw contact but I didn't think it was enough for a penalty" then VAR won't intervene, even if it they think it looked a clear penalty. So you will have situations where VAR think something is a penalty but lets it stand anyway, all because of the PL's stupid emphasis on little intervention.

In the three weeks has any penalty calls been overturned one way or the other?? Nothing comes to the top of my mind.

 

[sullydnl]

In the three weeks has any penalty calls been overturned one way or the other?? Nothing comes to the top of my mind.

Never mind overturning decisions, has a ref even looked at an incident himself as they are still allowed to do? This is the third weekend of PL VAR and it has so far been utterly toothless, except on objective decisions like offside where it is compelled to intervene as strictly as ever.

 

[Majima]

No, which is rather telling.

If you're going to have VAR then you should commit to it and have proper VAR. Which means you accept the delays it will cause and focus on getting the right decisions as the trade off. If you don't want those delays, don't have VAR.

The PL have opted for a very uncomfortable middle ground where they have VAR but use it in a half-baked way for fear of too many interruptions. Too much weight placed on referees' initial decisions, too little opportunity for them to correct their decisions, too much disparity between the rigour of policing subjective and objective calls, bad practice in terms of instructing linesmen on when to flag for offside, etc.

All of which means the people who don't want VAR are unhappy (because they will object to any disruption caused by VAR anyway) and the people who do want VAR are unhappy (because they don't get the improvement in calls they want). Which seems unsutainable to my mind, particularly as they are recieving little credit for their (very flawed) prioritising of a low number of interventions anyway. They would be better off accepting that they're never going to please the anti-VAR fans and focus on implementing a system that at least pleases those who want VAR.

The system they used at the World Cup was both better and better recieved than the one the PL have implemented, despite the fact that it caused more delays.

This makes zero sense to me at all. It sounds so dumb. Why aren't they fully implementing the system like was used in the mens & women's World Cup's? Would people really prefer the matches be ruined because the referee on the field has lost all control of the match due to errors and not applying the rules correctly..? Rather than, a small delay in the action, referee then re-applies the rules correctly and manages to regain control of the match..? I know which one i definitely prefer.

Example was yesterday, if the referee was able to review his decision for the Cahill red card before half-time, I can't see how the match would have got as completely out of hand as it did. Once he failed to punish Cahill properly, that was the start of the referee losing full control. It then only got worse in the second half with the Kelly red card waved away, the Milivojevic/Zaha potential red cards and the numerous other time-wasting and unsportsman like challenges allowed to go unpunished by the referee team.

Var's positives more than outweigh any potential negatives in my view.

 

[bleedred]

This makes zero sense to me at all. It sounds so dumb. Why aren't they fully implementing the system like was used in the mens & women's World Cup's? Would people really prefer the matches be ruined because the referee on the field has lost all control of the match due to errors and not applying the rules correctly..? Rather than, a small delay in the action, referee then re-applies the rules correctly and manages to regain control of the match..? I know which one i definitely prefer.

Example was yesterday, if the referee was able to review his decision for the Cahill red card before half-time, I can't see how the match would have got as completely out of hand as it did. Once he failed to punish Cahill properly, that was the start of the referee losing full control. It then only got worse in the second half with the Kelly red card waved away, the Milivojevic/Zaha potential red cards and the numerous other time-wasting and unsportsman like challenges allowed to go unpunished by the referee team.

Var's positives more than outweigh any potential negatives in my view.

In the other leagues, the ref going over to verify in the tele was most hated among the crowd in the stadium. So the FA probably looked at it and thought, yeah let’s just kinda reduce that, which lead to this half-indulgent monstrosity.

 

[bleedred]

Never mind overturning decisions, has a ref even looked at an incident himself as they are still allowed to do? This is the third weekend of PL VAR and it has so far been utterly toothless, except on objective decisions like offside where it is compelled to intervene as strictly as ever.

I would absolutely hate it, if halfway through the season, they start ignoring the standard which they set and go on to review decisions more by themselves. That would be totally unfair.

 

[Ødegaard]

In fact I would argue with VAR that the standard of refereeing will drop off as they become reliant on the system

By the looks of it, it makes refs like Tierney refuse to use it when they are challenged on a shit call they make because they want to be "correct" instead of doing their job properly and with integrity.