Originally Posted by
Optimistic Nick
I was thinking that, but not sure it really works due to the fluid nature of football. Last night in the NFL, a player caught a pass with hardly any time on the clock - it was vital that he moved as far forwards as he could to set his team up for a winning kick. He was grabbed and blatantly fouled by the defensive team, but he kept moving. The defender clearly had a grip on the player's facemask (a clear foul) but because it is the NFL, they wait until the play is over before applying the penalty - the incidence of the foul doesn't stop the game. He made significant extra yardage and when the play finished they added 15 yards due to the foul against him. Which works perfectly in American Football which by its nature is stop/start.
But in football if they only assessed whether a player was offside if a goal was scored, how long do you leave open the period to call it back? What if they get a corner from which they subsequently score? What if the ball stays in play for another minute or so, the attacking team keeping possession and then they score? What if possession changes a few times but the ball stays in play and then they score? I think leave offside as it is and leave linesmen as they are. Just get rid of VAR.
Or as has been suggested, give the VAR operator 1 go at watching a replay at full speed. Any howlers should be easily apparent from that so it would correct for stuff like the screenshot in the above thread. It does also mean that the occasional marginal decision will still be wrong and so Sky pundits etc will be able to dribble on about freeze-frames and possible offsides, handballs etc while the rest of us crack on with our lives.
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