V.A.R.

[Leigh Treymaine]

This is my opinion. I have always maintained that VAR is a technology that is not needed in football. Unlike similar applications in cricket, rugby league and tennis it is {1} trying to cover too broad a church and {2} is yet another totally subjective opinion which is not necessary.
Cue the farce at tonight's Portugal v Switzerland game. Along with the plethora of sideways passing teams because it{possession} is "in vogue "and easy for coaches, VAR will take the real game backwards.
Several pundits , because of refereeing controversy, have demanded it{VAR} in Scotland but , more so than in England, the Scottish domestic game has generally remained virtually the same game it was has always been, eg. exciting, tackles allowed,free flowing etc. whether it be the Juniors or the SPFL or the Leagues in between.
To end, tonight's Nations Cup tie showcased everything that is wrong with VAR. Confusion, delay, wrong decision being reached{Swiss guy tripped himself up}. As previously stated it is just another subjective decision{like the referees original decision} and is not needed, certainly in its present form.

[sellsell39]

I am ok with VAR - if it follows the same scenario as Rugby and cricket whereby everyone in the stadium can see the replay on the big screen and is therefore transparent to everyone, the players, the referee and the supporters.

The referee should not be running to the side of the pitch to consult a tiny monitor that no-one else in the stadium can see, which is what happened in the World Cup.

The Video referee should make the correct decision and should be in contact with the pitch referee.

[pompeypete]

VAR , I was all in favour but after last nights

France v nigeria match I feel sorry for the premiership next season.

Every goalkepper moves before the whistle so I can only forsee arguements...

along with the new hand ball rules
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[Ronsaunders]

VAR is predominantly for the TV viewer in my opinion.

How many times this season actual match going fans are going to be celebrating a "goal" only for someone to disallow it is going to be immense.

We support our teams but the "rush" comes from predominantly celebrating a goal. Soon, goal celebrations will be so sanitised because we'll all be waiting for 30 seconds to see if some TV exec has spotted the ball brushing a hand or similar and, at there will be a point when I start questioning whether I want to go at all.

[seand]

It's destroying the soul of football, it's as simple as that. Not long now til we get to the stage where rugby's at... any goal scored the ref 'goes upstairs' to ask "is there any reason I can't give the goal/try?". Lionel Messi slaloms past 4 men and clips a goal into the top corner to potentially win the World Cup and then strolls over to the bench for a drink of water while we wait four minutes for the VAR guys to see if someone strayed a toe offside in the build up.

[Dorking]

I've got season ticket at Crystal Palace (Premier League) and Dorking Wanderers (non league)

I think I am going to get seriously peed off with VAR while watching Palace next season in the Prem. The annoying thing is the waiting while the ref sticks their finger in their ear to try and make sense of what they are being told, all the while with players surrounding him arguing their case

I will seriously enjoy getting away from it at non-league level!!!

[Pete’s Picture Palace]

Well, I've just seen the last few minutes of the Scotland v Argentina Women's game...….. so the Scottish keeper had her feet off the line when she saved the penalty but how long did it take to decide to re-take it? 2 or 3 minutes after it happened? The ball was cleared, there was a foul, the trainer was on, and then came the signal.

And then the referee whistled for full time about 3 seconds into stoppage time when there were supposed to be 4 minutes. Nothing to do with VAR but that's what we'll get if referees aren't allowed to think for themselves.

Unbelievable farce. Heaven help us all.

[Leigh Treymaine]

Exactly Pete,
these people are ruining the game just for the "supposed" sake of progress.
Just wait until you see the 7 new rules introduced for next season.
All this money for a play station game. Take me back to Glasgow.

[Rocky]

After viewing the shenanigans in the France v Nigeria and the Scotland v Argentina games, it would appear that VAR checks may become the norm after any missed / saved penalty. If that is the precedent, then I wonder if checks will become the norm when a penalty is scored, checking for encroachment from the attacking team?

I can see the 90 minute game becoming the 100 minute game quite easily.
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[pompeypete]

Spot on Lads.......

I,m glad my team is not in the premiership.....

It will be chaos unless the referees are allowed to make decisions.....
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[CodeXIII]

It's going to end up like Amercian football with delay after delay.
The only major decision it's been used for is the Aguero offside in the Champions League SF.
These foot off the line, moved too early nonsense coupled with shocking refereeing will turn people away.
It's a fast flowing game, not FIFA football manager!

[cychris]

Been a supporter of Leicester City for over 50 years in that time seen
numerous matches with mistakes from the officials,some for my team.some against,they tend to even themselves out over the season..
In my opinion V.A.R is a farce,the way things are going most games are
going to be over 100 minutes,if the time gets added on...absolute joke..Whilst on the subject of jokes..the awarding of the 2022 World Cup to Qatar is another one..

[Hoops68]

The game at the highest level has been sanitised beyond belief already. Perfect pitches, plastic lookalike stadiums, academy clone players all built like brick shit houses. Now VAR removing any element of human frailty from the game. Nothing unique to talk about, no controversy. All Premier League games will look the same.

Having supported my team for over 40 years I cannot point to a single example of when we were promoted, relegated or knocked out of a cup because of a refereeing decision. Thank God my team never has any prospect of getting to the Premier League.

In the end the mistake people are making with VAR is thinking that football is so important that the game needs it. It's a sport and whilst it might seem like it at the time - it really doesn't matter.

[foxes1]

You either can move or you can't Depends on who interprets the law. Surely if this was the case now Scotland's women team would still be in with a chance of qualifying for the knock-out stages. If they are going to continue to use VAR someone has to make the call on where you use it and where you don't.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-7161985/VAR-NOT-rule-Premier-League-goalkeepers-position-penalties.html

[pompeypete]

From the BBC website......

Different rules for the Premier league

So that makes it alright.........Mmmm



The Premier League will not use video assistant referees in 2019-20 to rule on goalkeepers moving off their line to save a penalty.

Three penalties have been retaken at the Women's World Cup after VAR ruled keepers did not have at least part of one foot on the goalline.

Professional Game Match Officials Limited (PGMOL) will leave such decisions to on-field officials.

PGMOL could review the situation during the season.

VAR will be used in the Premier League for the first time during 2019-20 but there are no plans to use it in Scotland's Premiership next season.

After Scotland VAR penalty controversy, what exactly are football's new laws?
Why has this become an issue?
World football's law-making body, the International Football Association Board, introduced a new rule shortly before the Women's World Cup on the issue of goalkeeper encroachment at penalties.

It stated keepers must have at least one foot on the goalline when a penalty is taken or, if they are jumping at the time of contact, have one foot in line with it.

World football's governing body, Fifa, has focused on this during the tournament in France, with some referees warning keepers immediately before spot-kicks.
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[foxes1]

VAR comedy gold tonight in the England v Cameroon FIFA women's world cup game tonight. VAR got it right but the referee was a joke and the reaction of the Cameroon players was a disgrace

[holtie96]

Totally agree, the Cameroon team should be heavily fined, the referee was gutless, how she didn’t book more players I will never know, she was out of control. For me the most irritating part was the Cameroon player screaming at the fouled England player towards the conclusion of the match, I have never seen such clear dissent, i was impressed with the Lionesses professionalism as I am amazed it didn’t kick off! A potential backward step for the women’s game with such a big audience watching at home....the Cameroon team clearly don’t understand the rules!

[Pete’s Picture Palace]

Today I was invited to go with friends to a double-header hockey international at the Stoop, England v New Zealand men and then women.

Both games were scheduled to last one hour, this was 2 x 30-minute halves, each half also being punctuated by a 2 minute break after 15 minutes.

I wasn't aware beforehand that VAR was in use, but it was. 2 of them were in use, situated roughly level with the edge of the penalty area in football-speak - one at each end. There were 2 referees in each match.

We had no idea why goals had not been awarded. In the 2 matches, 6 goals were scored, and 5 of them were checked by VAR. I lost count of the disallowed goals, it may have been 3 or 4. It was also used to check if penalty corners should be awarded, so perhaps it was used about 10 times for corners over both games.

So at a conservative estimate, VAR was used nearly 20 times across both matches which should have lasted 2 hours, and did in fact last nearer 3.

It was a horror-show. I sat there thinking about what might happen next season.

At least the teams were well-behaved and despite a few verbal protests, generally accepted the corrected decisions which were replayed on a screen in the far corner but from our vantage point this wasn't really decipherable, given also our inexperience in this game. Personally, I don't think that made much difference. The players, obviously, being nearer and fully aware of what was happening, and had happened, thus were at an advantage to the humble fan. But they stood there like lemons while the decisions were reached. It was a warm day, I wouldn't fancy that in sub-zero temperatures or a thunderstorm.

In conclusion - heaven help us.

[Dorking]

Next season watching my non league team (without VAR) will be a pleasure compared to my Prem team (with VAR)

People in the ground who pay to watch the game get a rough deal compared to those at home, as they don't get the replays or commentators comments. Maybe it will become like watching snooker where we need ear pieces to hear additional comments on a running commentary?? Heaven help us.

I'd rather have no VAR to be honest and accept that occasionally a ref makes an absolute howler.