VAR - What is it good for?

[Any Old Iron]

"Absolutely nothing. Say it again, yeah."

[Lato]

"LiVARpool, Chelsea, both Manchester clubs and both North London clubs......that is all!"

[VirginiaHam]

I didn't realise there was no VAR until our penalty.

[Takashi Miike]

"VH, it's why I enjoyed last thursday so much"

[VirginiaHam]

"Takashi Miike 9:37 Wed Sep 14 As I thought about your question I asked myself if there were other officials in other sports with such a high profile as Mike Dean. There aren't, because officials in other sports get plenty of reliable support and consequently make the right decisions. Dean, on the other hand, despite all the available technology, continues to fuck up royally and deserves all the ridicule he gets. Anyway, we have a lovely experience ahead of us tomorrow night, because there is no VAR."

[Takashi Miike]

"VirginiaHam 9:14 Wed Sep 14 In what other sport would an official like Mike Dean, who he then courted controversy over the years and gave numerous dubious decisions season after season, he considered for a place on the VAR team?"

[Willtell]

Indeed VirginiaHam. One day the FA will get a wake up call when live audiences start to drop because they’ve had enough….

[VirginiaHam]

"Willtell 7:33 Wed Sep 14 My favourite gripe at the moments is that rugby and cricket have open mic discussions everyone can hear and see, and there's not a moment's debate afterwards about the video reviews. Why is football so secretive? It breeds accusations of cheating and corruption, and then the officials throw themselves under the bus as their incompetence is witnessed by vast TV audiences. You really would have thought that over time, VAR would have got better, but in fact it's got considerably worse. How is that possible?"

[Willtell]

The equivalent works fine in Rugby. It's open to fans and coaches and has sane and set rules for its application. None of that applies to football which is run by FA amateurs and the worst referees in Europe.

[Sven Roeder]

I was one who was hoping that VAR would take some of the howlers which always seemed to go for certain teams out of the game. If anything its made it worse DRS in cricket has been a positive and sometimes shows that what you imagined was out or not was just wrong. Obviously the two decisions (pen & Antonio 'offside' for goal 2) went FOR us v Steaua but there was what seemed like a massive release of pressure when it meant you could CELEBRATE a pen or a goal without worrying that some cսnt was going to piss on your chips. I'd be in favour of VAR being involved in goal line deciisions plus offside with the requirement being there had to be visible daylight between the attacker & defender. The rest is up to refs and they should appear post match to explain decisions.

[ted fenton]

100 Wrong decisions !!!!!

[ted fenton]

100 Wrong decisions !!!!!

[gph]

"VAR is absolutely marvellous. It highlights, like nothing else, how absolutely rubbish PL referees are. They are so bad that, even if it's all down to unconscious bias, it looks like blatant corruption. If VAR's ever binned, it will be to protect the useless officials."

[Mr. Burns]

That VAR fuck up for Juventus cost me £95. Not loads I know but it might have paid for a couple of seconds of electric which would have been a bonus.

[jack flash]

"VAR has ruined our beautiful game It's nothing more than a charter for cheats. After the ludicrous VAR intervention in our game against Chelsea, the worst of many, many, VAR decisions to date, there seems little point in playing All the excitement of scoring has been taken away as the corrupt officials search for ages for every possible reason to disallow a goal from anyone outside the Sky 6 sides 'Cheats' isn't too strong a word, and they know it! Not only is the technology flawed but worse still is incompetence/ corruption of the officials Goal line decisions and offside decisions could very easily be automatically resolved simply by having sensors fitted in the ball and in the players shirts It would even be possible for a light to come on when a player is offside or if the ball crosses the goal line If there's a foul in the build up to the goal then surely it's up to the referee to spot it. That's his job! Possibly, if he's in doubt (in his own mind, not influenced by any 3rd parties looking at a TV monitor miles away from the game) then he could choose to check on a pitchside monitor, but only has 30 seconds to make up his mind on his decision"

[Mex Martillo]

"Crap en’it Is there any chance we can bin VAR? I’ve lost interest after the Chelsea nonsense, what’s the point. It wasn’t easy but I could accept refs mistakes in the moment. I can’t accept these mistakes after an waiting an eternity and it kills any joy of the moment. It’s no fun."

[Sydney_Iron]

"Not just the PL that sees VAR clangers!! Pretty fucked up VAR mistake in Serie A, Juve drew against Salernitana 2-2 at home, it was a very entertaining game too. Juve was down 0-2 at half-time, only to fight back in the second half with Bonucci score an injury-time equaliser at 93rd min. Then on 96th min Milik thought he had scored a dramatic late winner for Juve, he took off his shirt to celebrate and received a second yellow, this also sparked a brawl on the pitch with Fazio and Cudrado also receiving red cards. But then when the play finally resumed, VAR ruled the goal out because Bonucci was deemed to be in an off-side position, even though he didn't touch the ball he was viewed as interfering with play. However, he actually wasn't off because a Salernitana player was coming back onto the pitch from the end that wasn't captured well by the VAR camera, apparently nobody in the VAR room spotted this when they were making the decision. This was crazy because the linesman had a perfect view of this situation, which is why he never raised his flag. However in the chaos that followed the goal celebration, nobody knew what was going on and apparently the VAR only informed the on-field referee and did not communicate with the linesman. The linesman thought the goal was ruled out for other reason and not off-side so the goal was allowed to be ruled out. I think at least in this situation, the new automated off-side technology would've been very useful...................."

[Swiss.]

Lee Trundle 1:06 Thu Sep 8 That was even working on the basis that even 50% of the refs weren't biased. That's how many decisions went against us.

[Lee Trundle]

"""If we had had VAR in the 2015-2016 season we would have made the CL"" Why? Were the refs competent or unbiased back then? Of course they weren't."

[Swiss.]

If we had had VAR in the 2015-2016 season we would have made the CL. As I've said the technology is good but if a ref is incompetent or biased what can you do?

[Mike Oxsaw]

"The WHOLE point about VAR is that it does generate more ""talking points"", which, in turn, translates to more website ""hits"" or additional viewers - we'll be back right after this word from our sponsors - and hence more advertising revenue. The game can go fuck itself so long as the money keeps rolling in."

[Westside]

"That could very easily change to a more TMO based model and make it better instantly. Yes. Or a challenged based model, one per team, per half. Which would hopefully be used only for absolute rickets. The ref would have to change his decision after looking at the monitors. No input from Stockley Park. Of course Chelsea last weekend, if they had a review left would have used it (nothing to lose that late in the game). Would the ref have overturned that decision based on a player appeal, rather than the input of a remote referee, he may feel pressured by?"

[Manuel]

"It hardly matters what Antonio thinks, does it. Not a chance they are binning it, but hopefully they will change some things. Wasn't there meant to be a meet on Tuesday?"

[Mex Martillo]

"110% agree with Antonio, bin VAR https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/p0cyxfdm"

[El Scorchio]

"I guess it probably depends from team to team, game to game. I do think some teams do it less/don't do it much, but some I think are coached to by their managers- spurs, arsenal and a few others. I just wish they'd put a rule in place saying if you do it, it's a yellow card or a week's wages. That'll stop it sharpish. But then you've got the fucking managers doing it on the sideline week in week out as well, harassing the fourth official. There's nothing gentlemanly in the game any more. But they do it because when the likes of Ferguson did it, it influenced officiating. Set a terrible low behaviour benchmark. But yes with Neville some react because it's him rather than what he's said. He doesn't half come out with some shit sometimes, but he does make some good points from time to time. And also a big yes, VAR is talked about far too much. If it was better run we wouldn't be. But I reckon as other posters have said, it's all publicity and generates column inches and as long as none of the big teams get hurt by it, then by all means carry on...."

[Manuel]

"El - But it doesn't happen less, no doubt. Not saying I agree with Neville, just saying what he said and some are getting all hysterical about it, which is a little sad, at the end of the day this isn't even important ffs, considering half the UK will be freezing to death this winter. Anyway, I hope all this blows over soon as talking about VAR instead of the football is a real fucking shame. It's ALL fucking shit these days. I'm out."