Thierry Henry has voiced his frustration at the time it takes for VAR calls to be made in football.
The technology was introduced to the game not so long ago, but it is the acceptable standard now.
It was introduced to help referees correct some wrong decisions they may have made in a game.
Other sports have their form of VAR, which helps, and it decides swiftly. However, football lags in that regard.
Referees and VAR usually take time to consider footage before making a decision.
This time-wasting takes the life out of the game and leaves fans frustrated. Henry is one of those fans, and he has shared his frustration.
He said, as quoted by The Daily Mail: ‘With VAR, what I get annoyed with is it’s not quick enough. Then it’s still the decision of someone in a truck or wherever they are, because it’s not VAR that makes the decision, VAR is just there to recall the situation.
‘And then the man in the truck will call to the referee to say you made a mistake or you didn’t make a mistake. Sometimes they help, yes, sometimes they help, no, but I can also understand that a human being can make a mistake.
‘[Semi-automated offside] in the Champions League, for me, as long as it’s quick, as long as it’s quick and we have an explanation, I can see that the player was offside, you move on.’
Just Arsenal Opinion
VAR takes speed out of the game, and it can also kill the joy in many matches.
Football authorities need to find a way to make the decision faster than it is being done now.
They can learn from other sports and find new ways to speed up these decisions faster than it is now.
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As far as I am personally concerned in regard to the Arsenal home EPL lunch-time kickoff NLD match against their arch rivals, Tottenham Hs on Saturday.
VAR delay or np VAR delay in the match will not hinder the Gunners from beating the Spuds in the match. Irrespective of whatever may be the game plan that Totts’ gaffer, Antonio Conte asks his Totts team to play to it in the match. But it will not change anything to their favour in the match.
For, the Gunners will beat the Spuds comprehensively in the match with some restlessness to it in the game. Which will make them cry and surrender all that which they have as offer in the match to the Gunners.
I’m firmly in the camp that they can take as long as they like, as long as they get the right decision at the end of it.
The frustration for many people is that they don’t see what the ref is seeing, especially those at the stadium, but worse is that the deliberations of the officials are not public.
Rugby Union gets it about right, with the match officials coming together on the field and talking to the VAR ref, asking for different angles, saying what they are seeing… everyone knows what’s happening and it’s actually really interesting to watch and understand why the decision was made.
It also makes officials more likely to get it right.
Of course, players and spectators are vastly more respectfu of referees in rugby – which is why UEFA say the VAR stuff is kept secret, because they fear the refs will be assaulted. What a world we live in.
This it’s not about time it’s about getting it right most of the time and most would accept edge calls going wrong. The amount of “clear and obvious” that goes away unpunished and the amount of not “clear and obvious” that is overturned on certain occasions is bad. My suspicion has always been that certain elements want rid of VAR and that is why we are getting what we do currently.
If people really cared about the speed of the game we’d introduce stop clocks for when play stops and shorten games to 80 min or less as a result, putting a complete end to time-wasting and almost certainly resulting in more time actually playing the game but most fans oppose it as an Americanisation. Can’t introduce stop clocks without clubs complaining that they would have to play at a higher intensity for longer hence the shortening of games.