VAR Technology = Euthanasia of Football / Futbol

[TabascoDiva]

VAR = Euthanasia of Football -
I can't believe no one has anything bad or good to say about today's Confederation Cup games?

I will start with the very bad. The use or misuse or abuse of VAR technology. (Video... Whatever it stands for)
Just because its new technology does not means its Great/ Good/Fantastic/ Awesome or whatever tickles any ones fancy to be in awe of it.

I am not awed by it. I think its the most awful mechanized idea any human could have ever invented for the beautiful game. Futbol/ Football is a passionate ,vibrant sport and depending of the region of the planet we come from it has its own style, ,its own identity. its own flavor , its own color and it was invented by humans . As humans we have limitations and that reflects on the referees with human greatness , failings or fallacies. errors and good or bad decisions, whether we love it or hate it , that is what its gives it the passion. And now a few idiots (FIFA) want a machine to overrule the Refs decision with a mechanical device. What is the purpose of having a referee if the the VAR tech will over rule his/her observation and rulings? As Alexis Lalas agrees with me and I agree with him "life its not fair" and sometimes things will be in our favor and other times , life will choose for us things that are not fair. Futbol is like that too "Beautiful and unfair: there is a winner and a looser. sometimes we will cry foul and sometime we will cry with exultation . .. GOOOOOOOL

 

[LionNYC]

Goal line technology is good. VAR will be good. It's just a more difficult technology to implement and get right and it's about referees to learning how to use it.

That elbow should have been a red card. Why was it a yellow?

 

[TabascoDiva]

In your observation its a red card because of the VAR tech. My concern is who is the Ref and the use or abuse or misuse of it ? The game was slowed down because the ref went to consult it . Without the tech, the game would had gone on just like thousands of games before VAR existed have gone on without it. When the Chilean player was in front of the goal area and the German player pushed him it was a penalty as the VAR showed in hindsight and it was not awarded. The Ref is the boss in the pitch , why have a machine to decide who is the winner?

 

[Tom in Fairfield CT]

Fully agree. It contributed to me losing interest in American football. I have no doubts it will do the same for soccer.

 

[LionNYC]

In your observation its a red card because of the VAR tech. My concern is who is the Ref and the use or abuse or misuse of it ? The game was slowed down because the ref went to consult it . Without the tech, the game would had gone on just like thousands of games before VAR existed have gone on without it. When the Chilean player was in front of the goal area and the German player pushed him it was a penalty as the VAR showed in hindsight and it was not awarded. The Ref is the boss in the pitch , why have a machine to decide who is the winner?

Yeah, the VAR can show all the angles but it's up to the ref to interpret it and make a decision. His choice alone. And he got it wrong.

 

[FredMertz]

Euthanasia:

 

[Mario]

what about the youth in asia? do they football?

 

[KennyD]

It will get better and a better system of communication will come about so its not this dark mystery to fans what is going on. Rugby league has had TMO since the late 90s and Union has had one since the early 2000s and its now just part of the game. Time goes off and everything is cleared up. However the Ref needs to trust his assistant in the booth who has the angles and the cameras guiding him. However some Refs will always just suck and still make their own calls until a rule is put in place.

 

[Keith Putnam]

We'll all like it a lot better once the TV broadcasters become more savvy about integrating it into their commentary.

 

[Gotham Gator]

The amount of ignorance in the media regarding how the system is supposed to work is pretty surprising.

Grant Wahl's interview with Howard Webb on the Planet Football podcast explains it all very clearly.

 

[TabascoDiva]

Euthanasia:

LOL this tickled my funny bone

 

[Shwafta]

This the closest thing I could find to a VAR thread, so I'll just stick it here.

Anyone know why they decide to go with "Clear and obvious" for VAR? Why not just, hey boss you made an error, *VAR*?

 

[sabertooth36]

This the closest thing I could find to a VAR thread, so I'll just stick it here.

Anyone know why they decide to go with "Clear and obvious" for VAR? Why not just, hey boss you made an error, *VAR*?

In theory, VAR is only supposed to be used when there's an objective mistake on the field. Like the ref gives a card to the wrong player or if an attacker was clearly offside and the AR missed it.

It's predictably morphed into a tool that refs are using to try and get every single call on the field correct every single time. Calls that are 50/50 are going to VAR and being overturned on the slightest hint of being wrong, even though that's not what VAR was meant to do.

 

[Shwafta]

In theory, VAR is only supposed to be used when there's an objective mistake on the field. Like the ref gives a card to the wrong player or if an attacker was clearly offside and the AR missed it.

It's predictably morphed into a tool that refs are using to try and get every single call on the field correct every single time. Calls that are 50/50 are going to VAR and being overturned on the slightest hint of being wrong, even though that's not what VAR was meant to do.

Well that's kind of my question. Why shouldn't those go to VAR?

 

[JCMore]

They decided on Clear and Obvious as the standard in order to maintain the original integrity of the game. Before the implementation, the word of the head Ref was basically final and the ARs could help. But they are human and we’re prone to make mistakes. And that was okay! VAR was intented to allow the human aspect of the game to continue by not checking everything and only changing the calls that were “clear and obvious”ly wrong. FIFA was worried it would slow the game down too much and make for a more choppy experience similar to American football. The NFL can get away with more checking and accuracy calls because the game already has a start and stop function to it. Soccer is never really meant to start and stop much and there can really mess with the flow of the game.

It’s intended design was to over turn “clear and obvious” mistakes. An example of this is the Hand of god goal by Maradona. With only fixing the clear and obvious calls refs would be able make correct calls when mistakes were made and also not slow down the game too much. Unfortunately it is being implemented to essentially “fix calls.” Basically creating a more “accurate” game but getting further from the original spirit and speed of the game. One could argue that having more accurate calls makes the game better. But then you get some of the shit show that was in the Orlando game last weekend where the last goal was called back on a pretty bullshit foul that wouldn’t have been a big deal if VAR was used correctly as stated (meaning a clear and obvious error). So either the rules and initial intention should be thrown out, or Refs need to be following the rule of the instrument correctly. What really grinds my gears is when refs decided to use VAR to justify their poor decisions or actively choose not to use VAR because they don’t want to have to say they made a wrong call. A good example of this is a scissor tackle in the SKC vs. MN game recently getting only a yellow card was shown when it should always be a red.

For reference:
The hand of god:

The hand of God - Wikipedia

en.m.wikipedia.org

Orlando city goal called off:
At 35 second mark

Right calls? Late drama in Orlando-Nashville, Reynoso fouled hard | MLSSoccer.com

Official MLS highlights, classic matches, video series and features.

www.mlssoccer.com

Scissor kick tackle in SKC vs. Minnesota
At 2:40 minute mark

Right calls? Late drama in Orlando-Nashville, Reynoso fouled hard | MLSSoccer.com

Official MLS highlights, classic matches, video series and features.

www.mlssoccer.com

 

[Gotham Gator]

Very good summary. Yes, preserving a balance between the flow of the game and stopping it to correct mistakes was a big part of the original idea.

When VAR was implemented, I said in these forums that my biggest fear is that it would lead to a foolishly consistent adherence to rules that were meant to be enforced with discretion. I think that's one of the things we've seen over the past few seasons.

The other interesting development - outside of MLS - is how many calls don't involve the Referee going to look at the monitor. Under the Laws of the Game, the Referee has the final word, and that was specifically preserved with VAR. It's the opposite of the system in MLB or the NBA, where an off-site team makes the replay decisions. In soccer, the Referee has the discretion to accept the advice of the VAR and not go look at the monitor. That happens all the time in Europe. It's rare in MLS.

 

[SoupInNYC]

The other interesting development - outside of MLS - is how many calls don't involve the Referee going to look at the monitor. Under the Laws of the Game, the Referee has the final word, and that was specifically preserved with VAR. It's the opposite of the system in MLB or the NBA, where an off-site team makes the replay decisions. In soccer, the Referee has the discretion to accept the advice of the VAR and not go look at the monitor. That happens all the time in Europe. It's rare in MLS.

And I think that has contributed to reviews taking too long, dissecting things too much, etc.

If it's just left at the video booth doing the review and passing along the results of that review, that would better limit it to fixing only "clear and obvious errors" (I realize that the video guys may do their own dissecting things too much so it wouldn't eliminate it).

 

[Marito]

It has also led to a perversion of the nature of the game, IMHO. I will never get over an overturned Leeds goal last year in which all of Bamford's body was behind the line of the last defender and, while running forward he raises his hand to signal to the wingback where he wants the ball, alas the wingback sends a perfect cross following Bamford's gesture, he finishes it beautifully, and fucking VAR review overturns the goal because his hand was offside. I wanted to kick the TV.

After years of this experiment I would vote against VAR and back to old school football without any doubt.