FT: Man City 2 -2 Spurs. VAR

[Father Dougal]

VAR was brought in to correct "obvious errors" only - that lasted a long time didn't it! It's added to the drama, but at the expense of the game.

Yep. That’s the intention. To create chaos that only people watching on tv will have any idea what’s going on.

Those at the ground will be left scratching their heads. Were it not for their smart phones the majority of people at the ground would have left the ground yesterday with no idea why the goal was disallowed. Just the way the tv companies wanted.

The tv people are being quite blatant in their support for it. Surely their first reaction would have been “this is ****ing stupid” after what happened yesterday. Yet they are calmly like well I guess it did brush his hand so by the letter of the new law (introduced for VAR by the way) I supppse it’s worked.

[the other bob wilson]

Yep. That’s the intention. To create chaos that only people watching on tv will have any idea what’s going on.

Those at the ground will be left scratching their heads. Were it not for their smart phones the majority of people at the ground would have left the ground yesterday with no idea why the goal was disallowed. Just the way the tv companies wanted.

The tv people are being quite blatant in their support for it. Surely their first reaction would have been “this is ****ing stupid” after what happened yesterday. Yet they are calmly like well I guess it did brush his hand so by the letter of the new law (introduced for VAR by the way) I supppse it’s worked.

To be fair, it took Messrs Tyler and Neville some time to realise what had happened as well - bloody shambles.

[The Lone Gunman]

The tv people are being quite blatant in their support for it. Surely their first reaction would have been “this is ****ing stupid” after what happened yesterday. Yet they are calmly like well I guess it did brush his hand so by the letter of the new law (introduced for VAR by the way) I supppse it’s worked.

Depends which 'TV people' you watch I guess. For instance, the Soccer Saturday panel are very mixed in their opinions as to how VAR is working, while the Match of the Day panel were similarly irritated last night:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/av/football/49384184

It needs to be noted that the clubs voted for VAR. As for the handball rule being introduced for VAR, that's nonsense. Not true. It applies in all leagues. It's being highlighted by VAR in the top leagues, though.

[Father Dougal]

Depends which 'TV people' you watch I guess. For instance, the Soccer Saturday panel are very mixed in their opinions as to how VAR is working, while the Match of the Day panel were similarly irritated last night:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/av/football/49384184

It needs to be noted that the clubs voted for VAR. As for the handball rule being introduced for VAR, that's nonsense. Not true. It applies in all leagues. It's being highlighted by VAR in the top leagues, though.

VAR needs things to be black and white. Did it brush his hand or not? Is he offside or not? You can’t have grey areas. It works in cricket and tennis for exactly that reason- it’s black and white.

It was never going to work in football because so much of it is judgement. That’s why it’s by far the most popular sport in the world.

The next thing will be any “contact” in the box will be a penalty. Anything at all. VAR won’t be able to cope with grey areas so football will have to become a non contact game.

As TOBW says it wasn’t long ago people believed it would be brought in for clear and obvious errors. Sounds nice and simple doesn’t it? The reality is far from it.