VAR – VARied responses

VAR or Video Assistant Referee has shaken up the football world since its’ first introduction. The overall objective of VAR was to better the beautiful game by correcting the wrong decisions. It has been questioned since day as to whether it is the right way to go about these decisions. Many feel that with all the new technology being introduced it was to commercialise football as a whole and make it feel more like a upper class game rather than a game that can be played anywhere at anytime with anything.

On paper, VAR is very simple, the overall process is 3 steps,

1. An incident occurs – The referee informs the VAR, or VAR recommends to the referee that a decision/incident should be reviewed.

2. The incident is reviewed by the officials at VAR, who then advise the referee on what the outcome of the incident.

3. The decision is either overturned and the appropriate decision/action is given.

Overall the decision to bring VAR into the Champions League and the Premier League was and still is not liked by majority of the supporters. Many feel that it hasn’t been used properly but could be adjusted appropriately and would start to work correctly. Just a few months into its first full season in the Premier League, the chief of referees Mike Riley has admitted to four different mistakes made by VAR already. Those being David Silva should have been awarded a penalty against Bournemouth, Sebastian Haller should have had a penalty against , Leicesters’ Youri Tielemans should have been shown a red card against Bournemouth and Schars’ equaliser against Watford shouldn’t have counted. Those are just the decisions that have been mentioned but fans, players and coaches alike have all given their opinions on the decisions and how long VAR takes to find the decision. Aston Villa’s captain Jack Grealish was very clearly fouled against West Ham but no penalty was given nor was it even reviewed. The biggest problem with VAR is how long it takes for the footage to be reviewed, The RFU (Rugby Football Union) have had TMO or Televised Match Official in the game for years and it takes roughly 30 seconds to review the footage and give the correct decision but for some reason with VAR it takes between 2-3 minutes which slows the game down and ruins it for the players and fans.