On Saturday the International Football Association Board unanimously approved the use of Video assistant referees to be added to the laws of the game.
The move comes following a worldwide trial, which has proved to be highly contentious and heavily criticised.
FIFA president Gianni Infantino told the BBC…
‘…From almost 1,000 live matches that were part of the experiment, the level of the accuracy increased from 93% to 99%. It’s almost perfect…’
Football’s law makers however have entirely missed the point of much of the criticism.
Football shouldn’t chase perfection, it should chase emotion because that is a huge part of the game.
It is this aspect that will be why VAR is unlikely to be introduced into the Premier League next season.
Following the shambolic scenes at Wembley for a recent FA Cup game, Tottenham manager Mauricio Pochettino told the BBC…
‘…Football is about emotion. If we are going to kill emotion, it’s not so happy what we have seen. My opinion is we have the best referees in Europe. The referee is the boss on the pitch and has the last word always.’
So what do the Cherries fans think?
Your Say…
Ken Baileys Ghost: How to improve the standard of refereeing?
Take all the television coverage out of the game.
Everybody just goes back to arguing about what they thought they saw, rather than picking over every last slo mo frame.
The game is being ruined by nonsense like var.
The ref’s decision should be final, regardless of him being rubbish or not.
Players don’t get a second go at anything they do; miss a penalty and you just get on with the game, you don’t get another go at it.
Players, and fans should just take what they consider a poor decision and just get on with it.
The way we’re headed VAR will be in constant use during the 90 and fans will cease to celebrate anything until they’re told to by VAR.
It’ll just kill another little bit of the game I love.
Give it a decade and when a goal is scored fans will wait until VAR before celebrating, and when they do it will be with some stupid song and choreographed arm waving.
This stupid song and arm waving will be the same at every club.
JIMNNINA: The apologists have put forward 0 ideas for improving standards and 0 officials who show consistent improvement.
The goal posts have been moved towards perfection when the current debate is the lack of consistency and competence which should be achievable.
A start would be to publish the assessors reports for managers, players and fans to read.
redharry: Part of the problem is the various populist directives that get handed out by the FA. Take diving as an example. Every fan no matter who they support know the worst culprits Zaha, Delle Ali, even our own Smithy. Some refs clamp down on it, some don’t . the FA give a couple of retrospective bans out then forget about the directive – result Zaha and Delle Ali (as witnessed at the w/end) continue collapsing like a pack of cards and the refs forget about the directive because something else is deemed top priority.
the same happened last season – remember the big clampdown on holding in the penalty area ? Well that made a big difference – NOT. only Mike Dean seemed to have a go and penalise for it and in the end he gave up because there was no support from the top.
I would start with trying to help the refs, mandatory (inc retrospective) yellow cards for anyone laying a finger on the ref, dissent – introduce the rugby 10 yard penalty and again yellow cards, diving – get serious about tackling it with long retrospective bans (Delle Ali should be serving one right now), time wasting – feigning injury – yellow cards retrospectively.
All the above means a lot of incidents being looked at afterwards but so what there are plenty of ex pros trying to milk a living out of the current wealth in the game. I hate diving, faking injury, pushing the ref around and would support moves to help refs deal with it.
wingsnwheels: If 4 officials can’t control a football match without electronic help, then the game is in a sorry state. The only thing they need is goal-line tech which is proven to work and is instantaneous. What next, drones watching over every square inch of the pitch and a fat controller sat somewhere making the decisions? Better trained, consistent, officials with a modicum of common sense would be better.
In All Departments: Referees know the rules inside out and they certainly know them better than most players or fans. For me this is about communication and openness. Not necessarily a detailed post match interview but helping everyone to understand what they saw/thought they saw/missed.
The programme that Neville and Carragher did a few months ago was excellent and there needs to be more interaction. Mike Dean came across as almost human ffs.
Along with this players and refereees need to work together and occasionally train together. This doesn’t need a big media spotlight but greater understanding leads to better relationships and – I would argue – better refereeing and improved player behaviour.
VAR is awful and the first Spurs goal disallowed on Wednesday showed why. Since it was a goal it had to be reviewed but a minor shirt hold that happens all game every game HAD to have it disallowed because it could now be seen on review. This – and other incidents – stripped Paul Tierney of what little authority he had and the first half continued in the most bizarre atmosphere I can remember only rescued by Spurs’ early domination of the second half and subsequent easy win.
Improve understanding and relationships and embrace/enjoy the glorious imperfections of the game.
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