It may have helped Leicester City win the FA Cup, but let’s bin VAR
The sweet release from the spectre of VAR has been a common positive theme among Leicester City fans this season. Iain Wright doesn’t want to ever see it again.
Before I start, when discussing VAR, I do have the awareness and honesty to offer an asterisk – yes, yes, I know that it won us an FA Cup final. If VAR hadn’t spotted Ben Chilwell’s big toe breaking the offside line in the 89th minute, it’s likely the big day at Wembley would have ended in despair. So, for that, I am grateful. However, I’m trying to look at this holistically, at a time when I think football is in danger of bursting its own bubble.
Let’s go back to the introduction of VAR. When it was launched, we were promised “Minimal Intervention for Maximum Benefit”, supposedly only altering “Clear and Obvious Errors” but the reality has been Repeated Intervention, with very little benefit to the ‘experience’, either on TV or particularly in the stadium.
Clear and Obvious? It’s become clear, if it wasn’t already, that very little is clear and obvious in football - it’s a sport devoted to subjective opinion.
Even in the case of offside, which should be a clear on or off, it’s down to which picture frame the reply is paused on and often accuracy of the lines drawn.
What it’s proved for me is that it’s very hard to get a definitive ‘correct’ decision as very little in football is that binary. We already have the ultimate in yes or no with goal-line technology, which gives an instant accurate answer (yes, I know that once it didn’t work at Villa Park - although devastating for the team involved, that's one failure in 10 seasons).
This goal-line technology could go further and cover the whole perimeter of the pitch, thereby offering real-time proof that the ball is in or out.
That would eliminate one of the things VAR (inconclusively) is used for and would be something that works instantly to give a definitive decision.
There’s a lot wrong in my opinion but the main thing is this: it reduces the most enjoyable part of being a football fan; that explosion of joy when the ball hits the net.
It’s easy to say this season has been very enjoyable with us sitting pretty at the top of the Championship, but the big change for me has been that reconnection with the shared emotion we experience when a goal goes in.
Enjoy it, celebrate it, breathe it in - safe in the knowledge that it’s not going to be chalked off. Not only chalked off, but chalked off 5 minutes later and with the bare minimum of explanation for those of us in the stadium.
Looking at this as a ‘football fan’ rather than purely a Leicester City fan, I can’t be alone in this reducing the amount of football I consume? I’ve found that, since VAR was introduced, I watch Leicester and England with the same enthusiasm, but other teams in neutral matches? Not as much.
The recent game between Tottenham and Chelsea was given the usual ‘Greatest game in the history of the universe’ by the Sky Sports Hyperbole Machine, but really? For me it just emphasised the chaotic mess football has become. Football was already the greatest and most popular sport in the world - it didn’t need VAR “adding to the drama”.
There are also question marks over the way VAR is used. Do we really need the spectacle of the on-field referee wasting even more time to go over to the monitor to confirm the inevitable? It’s a piece of pantomime we can do without. If VAR can’t determine ‘Clear and Obvious’ (especially after 5 minutes of replays), why isn’t there more use or emphasis of ‘referee’s call’ and simply sticking with the initial decision or if intervention is needed, telling him he's got it wrong and the change being made (like in cricket)?
In an attempt at transparency, we’ve been able to listen to the audio of some decisions this season, which has made for very uncomfortable listening. It’s a good job important things like air traffic control don’t have that much chaos going on in the pilot’s ear.
There’s also sadly more potential, and indeed suspicion, regarding corruption. You’d think this was something that the Premier League simply would be above and solely the realm of the wildest edges of social media, until Mike Dean’s recent comments, around not wanting to put his mate Anthony Taylor (the on-field ref) in a tricky situation by changing a decision during last season’s Chelsea-Spurs game, confirmed there are serious questions here.
It was quite the revelation, and inevitably makes one wonder how prevalent this is. The rest of Mike Dean’s interview was quite sad, as he detailed how much he’d started dreading games since the introduction of VAR and how he felt there was pressure to use it. The above revelation aside, it was hard not to feel sympathy for someone who actually felt that the technology hadn’t helped him make correct decisions.
Fans of the VAR system will point to an statistical increase in ‘correct’ decisions. Even if we are to believe that referees are getting more right by using the technology, is a pursuit of 100% possible, even with the technology? Are the interruptions to the game and reduction of spontaneous enjoyment really worth it for an increase of a couple of percent in supposedly ‘correct’ decisions?
It's part of football to think the officials are against you. But once you’d scraped away your feelings of injustice, how many clangers did the officials actually make in the past? And were those as bad as what happened in the recent game between Tottenham and Liverpool?
There are conversations around altering the processes to improve it. I'm not keen on suggestions such as ‘three referrals per team’ or ‘only used at referee’s discretion’. It’d just add to the chaos and continue to ruin the enjoyment.
In summary, with managers, players and fans overwhelmingly critical of VAR, why are we still persisting with it? I’ve reached the point where, having experienced it for a number of seasons, I’m past the point of wanting it refined. I simply want it gone.
12 Days of Christmas at The Bridge
For the past 10 years, The Bridge Homelessness to Hope has served a 3-course Christmas Dinner with all the trimmings to hundreds of people in Leicester who are experiencing homelessness.
This year, they want to go one better and offer their guests (service users) not just one day of celebrations but 12 days of festive events over the month of December.
If you’re enjoying The Fosse Way, please consider donating to The Bridge’s Christmas appeal:
