As major competition refuses to introduce VAR, the question is: ‘Is it all worth the trouble?’
ONE MINUTE young fans were jumping up and down, flinging their arms wide.
Next, they were in tears. And so were their dads. Not so much Sky Blues as the deepest blues.
That’s what VAR can do. And did to Coventry City whose FA Cup final dreams were soon to be dust after the decision that Victor Torp’s goal against Manchester United a minute before the end of extra-time was an illusion.
It was a toenail short of the truth, ruled VAR advisers. The line they use showed Torp was fractionally offside.
The linesman hadn’t flagged, but no matter because he’s practically redundant since his job was re-named assistant referee.
Soon those joyful moments of promise had become poison as United won in the penalty shoot-out and every viewer, bar United fans, had to wonder again about VAR.
For many of us it is menacing the magic of our game.
Forest people are going ape against it, maybe because they sense football is becoming the pen pusher’s revenge on human judgement.
Wolves might have agreed a few weeks ago when a headed goal from five or six yards was disallowed because a team-mate was blocking the West Ham goalkeeper’s vision.
But the truth is we have all had marginal, or worse, just plain wrong VAR decisions.
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Our beautiful game is broken, says Dave Kid
By Dave Kidd
WHEN Manchester United got lucky in their FA Cup semi-final, Antony’s first instinct was to goad heartbroken opponents Coventry. To rub their noses in the dirt.
Antony seems to be a vile individual but this isn’t really about Antony. Because Antony is merely a symptom of the hideous sickness within England’s top flight.
There is so much wrong.
After our elite clubs persuaded the FA to completely scrap Cup replays — which gave us Ronnie Radford and Ricky Villa and Ryan Giggs — without due recompense or reasoning with the rest of English football.
The previous day, after his Manchester City side had defeated Chelsea in the other FA Cup semi-final, Pep Guardiola whinged about the fixture scheduling of TV companies who effectively pay much of his £20m salary.
Up at Wolves, Guardiola’s friend and rival Mikel Arteta was playing the same sad song about fixture congestion, despite his Arsenal side having played two fewer games this season than Coventry — who don’t have £50m squad players to rotate with.
Chelsea, oh Chelsea. The one-time plaything of a Russian oligarch now owned by financially incontinent venture capitalists who have piddled £1billion on a squad of players who fight like weasels in a sack about who should bask in the personal glory of scoring the penalty that puts them 5-0 up against Everton.
It was interesting to note this week Sweden became the first European country to reject the chance to introduce VAR in its top flight.
It’s futile to boo a few blokes peering into monitors and advising the ref often three or even four minutes after a controversial incident.
Indeed, these delays drain the drama and excitement from football and might in themselves be enough to warrant sacking the whole system. Overall, they can add as much as ten minutes to a match.
I resisted a few boos — not done in the House of Lord’s never mind the directors’ box at Stamford Bridge — when Maxwel Cornet’s goal for the Hammers was disallowed for a foul on Edouard Mendy.
The ref’s poor decision was supported by VAR and Chelsea won 2-1 soon after.
It may surprise us that VAR staff are human but John Brooks proved it when he drew the line between Brighton’s Pervis Estupinan and a defender and declared the Ecuadorian was offside.
Whoops! Wrong defender. Brighton suffered a 1-1 draw with friends from Palace.
A Premier League check concluded over four years VAR support to refs improved their performance by 14 per cent to 96 per cent correct.
It’s possible to argue with those figures on several grounds but fans’ question is simply: Is VAR worth all the friction?
My stance is ‘yes’ on line decisions alone. But not for much else.