Is VAR ruining the game?

Football, it’s laws and how it’s refereed is based on opinion and interpretation and one referees opinion will differ from someone else’s. Now I’m not just talking about referees here, television, radio, newspapers and even the fans opinions will differ. Meaning that in truth you are never going to be able to get every decision correct. Most people thought that with the introduction of VAR this would change.

But now we have the situation that the on field referees decision is being questioned by another two referees in a bunker miles away from the ground. A refereeing team in the Premier League consists of the following, a Referee, 2 x Assistant Referees (aka linesmen), Fourth official, VAR, Assistant VAR. So that’s 6 different people who are all capable of refereeing a game. But who also have their own interpretation or opinion on how a game is run.

I find myself not celebrating a goal anymore because I’m looking to see if there was an offside, a foul, a handball or something else untoward leading up to the ball going in. So in a way VAR is ruining the game.

If you’ve not seen what happened last Saturday I will explain. Tottenham were playing Liverpool, a very high profile game with two teams who were unbeaten and at the top end of the league. Let me get the yellow and red cards given, out of the way first. Remember now this is my opinion and my interpretation of what I saw. You may say well what do you know you’re not a qualified Ref but I’ve played and watched enough football to have what I think is a measured opinion. The red card on Curtis Jones wasn’t a red in my eyes.

In fact the on field referee saw it as a yellow card. But by slowing it down and showing the referee a still of his boot on Bissouma’s shin as VAR did, it was changed to a red. An example of one referees opinion against another. He goes to win the ball as he does his boot rolls over the top of the ball and hits his opponents shin. Was there any malice? Not for me. But as it’s a game of opinions you can be sure that if he wasn’t sent-off and went on to score the winning goal the Spurs manager and fans would be saying well he should have been sent-off.

The other red card for Diogo Jota was even worse than the first one. The first yellow card I don’t actually think he touched the Spurs player who then proceeds to trip over his own feet. The second yellow though admittedly was a foul and as it was about two minutes after the other one, the ref produced a red.

The most controversial decision though was the disallowed Luis Diaz goal. The on field decision was offside and it went to VAR to check it. VAR however thought the goal had been given and therefore checked if it was onside. They then agreed with the on field decision thinking that the goal had been given. Confusing I know but this was down to lack of communication and the proper protocol not being followed.

In a statement “PGMOL acknowledge a significant human error occurred during the first half of Tottenham Hotspur v Liverpool,” it began.

“The goal by Luis Diaz was disallowed for offside by the on-field team of match officials. This was a clear and obvious factual error and should have resulted in the goal being awarded through VAR intervention, however, the VAR failed to intervene.

“PGMOL will conduct a full review into the circumstances which led to the error. PGMOL will immediately be contacting Liverpool at the conclusion of the fixture to acknowledge the error.”

This week Jurgen Klopp has asked for the game to be replayed, wrong in my opinion. At this rate we’d replaying games left, right and centre. I know we probably can’t but I would go back to letting the referee and the two linesman run the game and it be stopped by VAR only for something that’s clear and obviously wrong. Nothing you do will take away different opinions and interpretations which means we’ll always have something to debate every weekend. Let’s hope that last weekend was a line in the sand.

I received a message this week from a guy called Alan Jenkins. Saying that he and his wife were here in Mallorca for a few days and it would be good to catch up. I have to be honest and say I couldn’t remember who he was so embarrassingly I had to write back and ask him where we’d met. It turns out that the name Alan Jenkins was a made up name he used to use on Twitter. It was in fact Andy Jacobs the radio presenter who along with Paul Hawksbee has been doing an afternoon show on Talksport for the last 20 years. I’m a Talksport nut and their programme is the one I enjoy the most. It was a pleasure to spend an hour with him and his lovely wife Sue. They last visited Mallorca 50 years ago and were very impressed with how it’s changed.

This Saturday Dad Taxi has football trips to Sa Pobla and Soller so earning my money but unfortunately not enough time to see Real Mallorca play Valencia.

Take care everybody and enjoy your weekend!