My fellow VAR frustrated Gooners, I have become well known among JA regulars as being firmly against the introduction of VAR, until it could become FULLY automated, without the need for a second VAR ref overriding the pitch ref’s decisions.
I always saw that as a destructive thing to do, to thus undermine the ref while at the same time, and hypocritically, the authorities were urging players, managers and fans to give MORE respect to the pitch ref.
It was a case of “do as we say, but NOT AS WE PRACTICE”! Foolish, short sighted and bound to fail, as it has!
However, to describe myself as a realist, as I DO, while ignoring the undoubted fact that those such as I have, LOST the argument against VAR, would be continued foolishness and that is not my way.
So, albeit with reluctance, I here offer some suggestions that would, IMO, at least soften the harm done to our game by the fact VAR (ugh!!) is here to stay.
By far the most contentious part of VAR, apart from the extraordinarily long time it takes mere humans (rather than “AI”) to draw lines for offsides, is the overturning of a second VAR ref, over the original decision given by the actual ref.
So many of those overturned decisions are SUBJECTIVE (MEANING MERE OPINIONS) rather than provable, as offside at least is. As also are “in OR out of the penalty area” for fouls too.
IF the authorities at least had the nous to limit the scope of VAR and get rid of all subjective second opinions, it would be a big step forward and stop so many long-lasting arguments against the validity of that SUBJECTIVE overturning.
YES, we all know that in theory, the pitch ref can stick with his original decision when called to the screen. But IN REALITY, that has happened almost never, as pitch ref’s are running scared of VAR refs. Ridiculous of course but nevertheless true.
I have long contended that to routinely EXPECT AND DEMAND pitch refs get every decision right, is unrealistic and not what any mere humans are capable of doing.
I have posted, long and fruitlessly on JA that to expect refs to be perfect, while at the same time knowing that all other people involved in the game will always make mistakes, is to ignore reality. And I am an arch REALIST!
But that is yet another battle I have lost! Fans still routinely accuse refs of being biased against their team. Of cheating, in fact! Such fan hypocrisy, when all fans, me included, are biased.
And amazingly, you may ask, how is this bias even possible, when fans of ALL teams accuse refs of bias. I despair often, for the blatant LACK OF FAIRNESS IN SUCH BASE accusations.
Then if VAR stopped interfering when a ref gave or refused a penalty, EXCEPT for when the incident was INSIDE OR OUTSIDE the box, which would halt a lot of the weekly rows that go on in most games and for ages afterward, in fan sites etc.
Next suggestion is for VAR to never challenge the pitch ref’s decision of handball – which all realists know should now be called ball to hand – as the old perfectly workable hand to ball rule was stupidly changed to cause the regular monstrous rows it now causes.
What would be ideal, obviously, is for IFAB (the game’s “law” makers) to revert to the way handball USED TO WORK SO WELL, before the idiotic change in interpretation which so regularly RUINS games nowadays.
But IFAB are interminably stupid as well as corrupt, and to expect a sensible change simply won’t happen. So, the next best solution is for at least no VAR reinterpretations against the ref’s decision.
IF ONLY – though I despair of it ever happening – my suggestions were adopted, IMO the majority of VAR disputes would disappear, and what is left, although still not MY desired state of being, would IMPROVE the all-important fan harmony, and heal to some extent the general divisiveness.
I would really value your own thoughts please.
COYG
Jon Fox
Here is the latest DUBLIN ARSENAL video reviewing our battering of Crystal Palace by our BRAZILIAN EAGLE HUNTERS
CALLING ALL ARSENAL FANS! Anyone who would like to contribute an Article or Video opinion piece on JustArsenal, please contact us through this link…
