VAR - In our league: Yay or Nay?

[Spoonz Red E]

Sadly, despite the escalating development of the 'internet of things', there will be no AI jumpers for goalposts in my lifetime.

 

[Oldsmobile-88]

No from me...But I feel it’s inevitable that it will be introduced for live games in the PL within the next 5 years.

 

[Grecian2K]

Surely we are already blessed with VAR.

Virtuous Arizonan Referee.

 

[Pete Martin (CTID)]

We've managed perfectly well at SJP for 110 years without VAR. Yes sometimes a referee's decision is wrong, but sometimes shyt happens. Just live with it.

 

[IndoMike]

More than once the ref's initial/instinctive decision was correct and more than once using VAR the eventual decision was wrong. in addition. the joy ofa goal being scored is diminished both for players and fans since there is a possible wait in case VAR comes into play. In the end we'll have nothing to talk about if there is no controversy.
Finally, the cost of using the relevant equipment and paying for the monitors will be too excessive for lower league clubs. So, for me it's a NAY.

 

[Steve H]

Please no...... Along with assistant referees behind the goal line this is one 'improvement' we can happily do without

 

[jrg333]

It's a nay from me too. The footballing and refereeing community is still not agreed on what constitutes a 'handball' or a 'dive' in many instances, so simply increasing the number of camera angles is nowt but a waste of time and a drain on the atmosphere in the stadium.

VAR for objective goal-line, touch-line, and by-line decisions is fine. Possibly offsides too although I think linos do a great job in general. For any other decisions VAR does nothing but add a few minutes of boredom to the game.

 

[citydrinker]

At any level lower than Premiership it's a nay from me. The only possible exceptions could be for Play-Offs and Cup finals.

 

[Jason H]

No, no and no again. While on occasion VAR at the World Cup managed to turn a wrong decision right, it also managed to turn right decisions wrong as using slow motion makes an incident look different to the actual intent at the time. Running the penalty incident in real time yesterday would show that at no point did the defender intend to put hand to ball as the France player's jump blocked off his view meaning he had practically no reaction time. Rather than "solving" the debate it only seems to have intensified it.

The practical reason is around the number of officials required vs the number of available officials and the knock-on effects. By introducing a "5th" official at professional levels you're reduced to increasing the supply of available officials, from which you will need to source from below. This has the effect firstly of diluting the quality of officials at lower levels through over-promotion and then secondly creating shortages further down where officials are already in short supply. Grassroots matches will therefore suffer through not having enough officials (something that happens anyway).

 

[IndoMike]

No, no and no again. While on occasion VAR at the World Cup managed to turn a wrong decision right, it also managed to turn right decisions wrong as using slow motion makes an incident look different to the actual intent at the time. Running the penalty incident in real time yesterday would show that at no point did the defender intend to put hand to ball as the France player's jump blocked off his view meaning he had practically no reaction time. Rather than "solving" the debate it only seems to have intensified it.

The practical reason is around the number of officials required vs the number of available officials and the knock-on effects. By introducing a "5th" official at professional levels you're reduced to increasing the supply of available officials, from which you will need to source from below. This has the effect firstly of diluting the quality of officials at lower levels through over-promotion and then secondly creating shortages further down where officials are already in short supply. Grassroots matches will therefore suffer through not having enough officials (something that happens anyway).

Totally agree with your very good point in the first para about slow motion distorting the reality of the action and totally agree there was no hand to ball. It might have cost Croatia the World Cup.