Vocal Voices

Yesterday Alexis Mac Allister of Brighton scored an absolute stunner of a goal.
The ball wasn't properly cleared by Leicester and Mac Allister struck a thunderous shot past the keeper from twenty odd yards out. it was the kind of goal you see a couple of times a year, a "worldie", the kind of goal that makes you glad you're a football fan.

But wait, here comes VAR. And after a wait of four and a half minutes, some little weasel with a slide rule sitting in an office miles away decides that Enock Mwepu was half a millimeter offside, so no goal.
Everybody in that stadium thought it was a goal, players, officials, crowd. There wasn't one protest from the Leicester team. Nothing Mwepu did affected the goal.

The justification for using VAR in the first place was that it was going to be used to correct "Clear and obvious mistakes".
https://www.besoccer.com/new/var-only-f ... fab-769069

There was nothing "clear and obvious" about the "offside" in Mac Allister's goal. It took four and a half minutes to reach a decision, and wasn't "clear and obvious" even then!

On Match of The Day 2 last night Ian Wright said that VAR is being used to look at reasons why they can cancel a goal, and he's exactly right.

Imo it's sucking the joy out of football.

Completely in agreement, Crommers, which is why I'm not even bothering to watch Premiership on the telly.

Mind you, the number of minor non-league games I've seen where the ball has been scrambled over the line after a prolonged hackabout in the box, and the dozen or so away fans have immediately started screaming for a VAR review ......

It really is sucking the joy out of the game Crommers.
You don’t know if you’re right to celebrate a goal, and by the time they’ve gone through the checks (if required) the moment’s passed if it’s allowed to stand.

But thicko supprters were sold it as the Holy Grail of solving 'contentious' decisions and went for it; they wanted it, of sorts. The thing it is worse than the old ways. The thickos now want it reversed, but the authorities will stick with it.

It is the worst of both worlds The useless authorities will win.

Well done the fans.

I never wanted it Frank, it was clear to see that it’d disrupt the flow of the game.

We couldn’t even work out what Arsenal’s goal last week was being checked for - the message on the scoreboard said “VAR. Goal check. Mistaken Identity”

Just bring this back up again.

I actually think we witnessed one of the worst refereeing and VAR performances we’ve seen last weekend at the home game v Southampton.

Casemiro was sent off, it was a contentious decision as to whether he should’ve gone or not. The ref initially gave him a yellow but the VAR controller flagged it for a review and it was changed to red. However, the VAR person was Andre Marriner who the previous day had refereed Leicester v Chelsea where Ricardo Felix went in studs up of Joao Felix’s ankle, didn’t win the ball and all that happened was Chelsea were awarded a free kick.

Rashford was through on goal and was brought down in the box by Southampton’s keeper, no penalty. VAR said no contact but footage clearly shows that contact was made, the keeper slid in with two feet and caught him.
Another instance was a clear handball in the box, nothing given again.

The inconsistency is ruining the game and it’s so tight at the bottom of the table that the point Southampton gained due to this could be the difference between them staying up and one of the other teams going down.

The point that Southampton gained could be the difference between them staying up.

*Edit to add* From the Newcastle v Wolves game last weekend
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-11872465/Wolves-receiving-end-VAR-blunder-against-Newcastle.html?ito=social-twitter_dailymailsport

I agree Jo. VAR was sold as the magic bullet to solve poor decisions and it has turned out to be nothing of the sort.
Wolves were absolutely done, that was a clear penalty and sending off.

cromwell wrote:I agree Jo. VAR was sold as the magic bullet to solve poor decisions and it has turned out to be nothing of the sort.
Wolves were absolutely done, that was a clear penalty and sending off.

Problem is Crommers, some of those who make the poor decisions on the pitch are now the ones behind the VAR monitors.