Video Assistant Referee (VAR) ~ Yes or No?

The first was a clear pen not sure in the arguments against it.

The Wolves one was never a pen and was about a yard outside the box.
 
The TV companies are missing a trick here in blighty, when there's a VAR call they should just sneak a few adverts on ....
 
I thought the first one for Fulham was soft but the ones after that were fair enough.

Forget the TV companies it's the fans in the ground that need some entertainment while the game is stopped.

Really Fred the Red needs to start getting involved a bit to keep the crowd entertained like the mascots do in American sports.
 
Another absolute shocker of a decision tonight to award PSG a last gasp penalty. It’s just a farce at this point.
 
I'm pleased, just because of Shearer, we've had a couple of decisions like that go against us, and he's never that animated. Cock
 
SuperRash said:
Another absolute shocker of a decision tonight to award PSG a last gasp penalty. It’s just a farce at this point.
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By the UEFA rules it's the correct decision.

They have a really strict interpretation of the handball rule, if your arm is even slightly away from the body and the ball hits it the ref has to give the handball.

We've seen it this year in two of our games Eriksen vs Bayern and the 2 in the Copenhagen games.

It's a ridiculous rule that is far to harsh and apparently it's going to be changed again next year.
 
jsp said:
By the UEFA rules it's the correct decision.

They have a really strict interpretation of the handball rule, if your arm is even slightly away from the body and the ball hits it the ref has to give the handball.

We've seen it this year in two of our games Eriksen vs Bayern and the 2 in the Copenhagen games.

It's a ridiculous rule that is far to harsh and apparently it's going to be changed again next year.
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It’s the state of the rules. No one gets it. UEFA have clarified today it shouldn’t have been a penalty and removed the VAR officials involved from todays champions league fixtures.
 
All these apologies and standing down of officials don’t help the clubs who the decisions go against!

VAR is just an absolute farce and it won’t get any better because there are so many grey areas and incompetence with the people using the technology.
 
IDFD said:
It’s the state of the rules. No one gets it. UEFA have clarified today it shouldn’t have been a penalty and removed the VAR officials involved from todays champions league fixtures.
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Yeah it doesn't help when different competitions use different guidelines to interpret the rules.

Apparently they're going to change the handball rule again next season and bring back the mitigating factors like the ball deflecting off the body and into the arm or the proximity to where the ball was struck from. These are still used by the Premier League to judge handball but UEFA don't use them.

UEFA were trying to be super consistent by having this really strict approach but anyone who's watched football knows these shouldn't be penalties. The punishment for the crime is also so extreme in most of these cases as they aren't blocking shots at goal it's almost always blocked crosses.

I didn't think UEFA have said anything yet, can't see anything official from them online?
 
Not VAR related but the ref in the City game yesterday made a massive blunder.

Changed his mind on an advantage call in the last minute when Grealish was going through 1 vs 1.
 
Yeah was a real strange one especially as he put his arms out to play the advantage. Can only assume that he thought the ball was not going through to Grealish so he brought it back.

A bad error but it happens with humans, and I guess that’s why the technology has been introduced into the game.

On another level, it was hilarious to watch the City players lose their heads.
 
Yeah either that or he thought Grealish was offside so he pulled it back.
 
www.theguardian.com

‘Nowhere near good enough’: Premier League admits VAR needs to improve

The Premier League have accepted VAR checks are too frequent and take too long but insisted the technology is helping referees reach correct decisions
www.theguardian.com www.theguardian.com

The whole way VAR works I think needs a massive review it needs to make much quicker decisions even if accuracy of those decisions suffers slightly as a result and all that "clear and obvious" stuff needs to go.

We either take the time to get decisions right regardless of the on field decision or we scale things right back.
 
I've always hated VAR. It spoils the atmosphere, the goal, and just the general feeling of fun. I think goal line tech was all that should have been added, the rest is bollocks. How much rubbish goes on with lines being drawn and players waiting... and then the whole VAR was wrong published on BBC Sport. Meh. Take it away.
 
It works in other sports Rugby, Tennis, Cricket etc so yes no excuses it works, the problem is how it’s applied.
At the moment we have idiots checking it, it takes too long and even with the technology they get it wrong.

Its takes the shine off football for me and Iv actually stopped watching a couple of games because it’s either taken so long or they’ve still got the decision wrong.
 
It has changed not only the way the game is watched but also the way it's played. Teams are willing to go super aggressive with high defensive lines now because they've got that protection from VAR and the way the handball rule has been savaged to try and make it more black and white rather than subjective isn't helping either.

Tennis and Cricket it's dealing with a lot more binary decisions either the ball is in or it is out, you aren't trying to deal with contact and fouls and in cricket it doesn't really matter if the game stops for 5 minutes to try and get the right decision. Football isn't like that it's meant to flow back and forward and long stoppages really do impact games.

Think I asked before on here about how it works in Rugby because I don't really watch it.

From memory not every Try in Rugby is reviewed by the TMO, it's only if the on-field refs feels unsure about something in the build up that they ask for it to be checked or do they now check every try?

They don't check penalties either do they? So if the ref gives a penalty and you decide to kick it they aren't going to go back and check that it was a penalty before the kick is taken?

I feel like with football we are sacrificing so much of the joy in watching the game to try and get from 90% of big decisions being right to 95% of big decisions being right.

There will always be controversy around decisions and that's part of the fun but for me it's ruined the goal celebration as you never know you've scored until it's gone through VAR. Then you get these stupid penalty decisions where because the ref gave it they allow a soft one to be given anyway which isn't really the point of having video checks.
 
I'd be happier with something like what you've mentioned, whether rugby does it or not. I think, have VAR in place, but only use them when there is a really good reason. I'm honestly so sick of the half arsed celebrations for goals we get these days... they're just so odd.

What I've never understood is the rule when something is given we can't take it away five minutes later. Why not? VAR can work in the background and make sure they really are 100% correct and rule goals out or award them 25 minutes later [probably only within that match time period however] we don't want it getting crazy.
 
www.bbc.co.uk

Semi-automated offside technology approved by clubs

Premier League clubs approve unanimously the use of semi-automated offside technology for the 2024-25 season.
www.bbc.co.uk www.bbc.co.uk

Apparently this will reduce offside checks from 60 second to 30 seconds.

The subjective ones over is a player interfering will still need to go to the screen to be checked.
 
After the uproar over yesterday this new tech will only make it worse.

Less tech could be the answer for the close calls if they stop the video and it looks level you give the goal, trying to be mm accurate I think is the wrong way to go because that isn't what the rule is there to do.
 
VAR was supposed to make sure they got all the decisions right, its better for offsides but when its deciding on a handball for instance its all over the place and we are no further on because it seems no one can agree whether it was deliberate or accidental.
 
JammyRed said:
VAR was supposed to make sure they got all the decisions right, its better for offsides but when its deciding on a handball for instance its all over the place and we are no further on because it seems no one can agree whether it was deliberate or accidental.
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It was sold as a way of stopping "howlers" where a ref makes an obvious mistake then it gets corrected in the game. It was never going to allow them to get every decision right and the laws of the game make that impossible because so many decisions are subjective. The hope was they'd be able to go from getting 90% of big decisions correct to 95%. There is then the issue of how do you decide if it's a correct decision.

Handball is a good example the rule is actually quite simple now if the ball hits your arm and the arm is away from the body that is now handball. However, through the season they've decided to soften this because to many penalties were being given where the arm was only slightly away from the body. This creates inconsistency like over the weekend.

In the City & Everton games two handballs not given by the ref were reviewed by VAR and deemed not to be penalties. In our game two handball decisions one for either side were checked by VAR and in both occasions the VAR backed the refs decision. Penalty for Coventry no penalty for Man Utd. I'm pretty confident in saying that all 4 under the rule as it's intended to be applied were penalties but only 1 was given and VAR is being told to stay out of close calls.

Fans will always moan and argue about decisions, VAR has just added another layer to that conversation.
 
Just watched the highlights of the points deducted derby, and on another day Forest could've had 4 penalties, Ashley Young was very very lucky, he could've been responsible for 3 of them.
 
jsp said:
It was sold as a way of stopping "howlers" where a ref makes an obvious mistake then it gets corrected in the game. It was never going to allow them to get every decision right and the laws of the game make that impossible because so many decisions are subjective. The hope was they'd be able to go from getting 90% of big decisions correct to 95%. There is then the issue of how do you decide if it's a correct decision.

Handball is a good example the rule is actually quite simple now if the ball hits your arm and the arm is away from the body that is now handball. However, through the season they've decided to soften this because to many penalties were being given where the arm was only slightly away from the body. This creates inconsistency like over the weekend.

In the City & Everton games two handballs not given by the ref were reviewed by VAR and deemed not to be penalties. In our game two handball decisions one for either side were checked by VAR and in both occasions the VAR backed the refs decision. Penalty for Coventry no penalty for Man Utd. I'm pretty confident in saying that all 4 under the rule as it's intended to be applied were penalties but only 1 was given and VAR is being told to stay out of close calls.

Fans will always moan and argue about decisions, VAR has just added another layer to that conversation.
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To be honest I do not have many issues with the handball against AWB. It is like the commentators saying but he got the ball. Yes to get to the ball he went thru the other player or his follow thru up ended him. So AWB's hand was away from his body and it stopped the ball from being crossed.
 
justintime said:
To be honest I do not have many issues with the handball against AWB. It is like the commentators saying but he got the ball. Yes to get to the ball he went thru the other player or his follow thru up ended him. So AWB's hand was away from his body and it stopped the ball from being crossed.
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The issue I have is that three times this weekend the exact same threshold for a penalty wasn’t applied.

In the same game in extra time a Coventry player does the same thing on a corner. VAR reviews all 3 and says no penalty. So if we aren’t trying to be consistent on the big decisions like penalties what exactly are we doing.

The rule sucks you have to allow for accidental handball there is zero intent by Wan Bissaka to handle that ball, same by the Coventry player but if one is a penalty then so is the other.
 
Lads I’ve got an idea on how to fix VAR.

I think we all agree the lack of consistency is a huge problem currently especially on penalties and red cards where decisions are subjective, well VAR could fix that if they changed the way it’s currently used.

What if all penalty or red cards were given by VAR and VAR only? The VAR has to check them anyway so why not just give them the power to make the decision and take it away from the referee entirely.

This would eliminate this stupid on field decision lottery we currently have where incidents like handball can both be and not be penalties.

Under my new system a clear threshold for what is and isn’t a penalty or red card is set at the start of the season. If it meets that threshold it’s a penalty or red if it doesn’t we play on. What the ref saw in a split second should not in anyway impact the decision making of the VAR. This also means we don’t need pitchside monitors.

The ref is then there to manage the game outside of the box and dish out the yellow cards, the big decisions are not his issue anymore the replays will decide the outcomes.
 
Well the whole purpose of VAR is to get things right and make the game on the whole fair, at least that should be the purpose - I think any way of making it more consistent is a good thing, so I like the idea. The whole problem will still be human error though and it'll come down to their decision again, which will still have people moaning that they didn't get it right, that the threshold was met, but they didn't think it was, or the reverse.

I think VAR is terrible and I am still in the thinking that it should just be removed. I liked football how it was.

I think possibly keeping them doing the job in a much lesser role could be good though. Only getting involved once an incident has been flagged for review [behind the scenes] and they should only intervene if a very clear and obvious error has been made. We wouldn't need to see them as much and games could go back to having that flowing feeling again.
 

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