What In The VAR Is Going On?

VAR, the gift that keeps on giving! Ever since its inception in the Premier League, it has been under heavy scrutiny, and rightly so. In particular, over the last few weeks, there have been some highly questionable decisions being made by officials, which VAR has played a massive role in. Unlike most people, I’m all for VAR as, if it’s used correctly, I think it has a place in our league. But right now, the way it’s being utilised in this country needs to change, and quickly. So, let’s talk about it; let’s talk about why VAR is and why it isn’t working in the Premier League.

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Why It’s Working

Righting Wrongs

What was the primary reason for the FA deciding to implement Video Assistant Referees? It was to ensure that the on-field mistakes that officials made were rightfully overturned. And if we look at it from an objective set of eyes, VAR has done that for the most part. Whether it’s overturning an incorrectly awarded penalty, ruling out a wrongly awarded goal for offside or overturning a red card that shouldn’t have been brandished. When it works, it makes sure that the correct decisions are made and ensures the reputation of the game remains intact.

Some people will point to the fact that at times it can take far too long for VAR to come up with a verdict. But my counter to that is, it shouldn’t matter how long it takes, as long as the right decision is made, that’s all the matters. There have been instances when the referees have made glaring errors and if it wasn’t for the intervention of VAR, teams would have been screwed over. Since the beginning of the season, out of 28 possible overturned decisions, 27 were correctly overturned (just over 96%). That statistic alone shows the value of VAR.

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Exposing The Con Artists

If there’s one thing I don’t like about modern footballers, it’s their tendency to try and pull a fast one over the referee or attempt to deceive the officials. I can’t remember how many times I would watch a Premier League match where a player would take a dive in the box to win a penalty. Or maybe a player would go to ground easily over the slightly bit of contact to get an opposing player sent off. I understand that at times footballers may have to “exaggerate” to get what they want, but there’s a difference between exaggeration and outright deception.

Well, with VAR, the likelihood of players being able to get away with such shenanigans is slim-to-none. Not only does VAR exposes these con artists, but it makes sure that the game is being played with the right spirit. I don’t care who you support, no fan wants their players flopping and ending up on the ground after minimal contact like is sometimes commonplace in other sports (NBA, I’m looking at you!). We want to see commitment, aggression (in the right sort of way) and passion, and VAR is doing a good job in that regard.

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Why It Isn’t Working

Lack of Transparency

Only in the last few weeks have the Premier League started realising audio of what the officials at Stockley Park are saying while an on-field review is taking place. Before this, fans watching a match on TV or in stadiums had no clue what was being said in the booth. All they would see is the big screen stating that an incident is being checked. The Premier League needs to make more of a conscious effort to keep fans informed of what the thought process is behind some of the decisions in real-time. That way, we’d be more understanding of certain decisions.

The Premier League could learn a lot from Rugby. Here, both the referee and the video assistant referee are mic’d up. This means that those of us at home can hear exactly what the referee is thinking as well as the discussions between the ref and the video assistant referee. You never hear of any gripes with how the system is used in Rugby because all parties are kept informed as events happens. Whereas in the Premier League, we must wait till days after matches to hear the audio. It’s simply not good enough.

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Where’s the Objectivity?

VAR was meant to bring more objectivity to decision making, but we’ve started seeing that it’s being used on a more subjective basis. We’ve seen instances of this in the last couple weeks, with Scott McTominay’s goal for United against Fulham being ruled out because Harry Maguire was deemed to be offside from a subjective POV. If we’re now allowing subjectivity to come into play, VAR shouldn’t be changing on-field decisions at all. Why should decisions be overturned purely based on partiality?

Other rules such as handball and offsides are not being viewed from an objective lens anymore. The handball rule has been changed so many times since VAR came into the league, but even now, the lack of consistency when it comes to handballs is ridiculous. Similarly, with offsides, they should be relatively simple. But depending on the game, the lines that are drawn can be straight in one instance, wiggly in another. Sometimes they can be drawn from one part of the body or angle and in a different case they can be drawn from a different body part or angle. The Premier League needs to get rid of this subjective decision making as it is ruining the game.

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This Week’s Hot Take

Despite many people’s issues with it, I think overall, VAR has been good for the league. There are those that will argue that mistakes are part of life and referees should be allowed to make them. But at the same time, a mistake could be made at the wrong time which could potentially cost a team the title, or Champions League football, or even Premier League survival. Sure, we still have a long way to go before VAR starts working seamlessly in the English top-flght, but we are getting there.