If there’s one topic in football today that’s bound to get football supporters, players and managers hot under the collar, it’s VAR.
Despite it being part of the game for some while now, there still doesn’t appear to be a set of officials in Europe’s top five leagues that are able to execute it correctly.
Both penalties in the recent Liverpool vs Newcastle game looked tenuous to say the least, but VAR didn’t intervene to suggest to the on-pitch official that he’d made a clear and obvious error.
No wonder those in the Newcastle dugout were left miffed after the game.
Former super agent and Premier League co-creator, Jon Smith, accepts there’ll always be those that will try to pull the wool over the official’s eyes, and he wants changes to be made in the entire decision making process.
“Ultimately, one of the best things about VAR is that the referee’s decision is currently final. So the VAR can flag something that he wants the official to have a look at but the man in the middle still makes the final decision,” he said in his exclusive CaughtOffside column.
“As I’ve said before I’m a big fan of VAR, though like we saw in the Liverpool vs Newcastle game, the problem with it is you’ll still always have players dive and there’ll always be human mistakes.
“One would hope that the team of people in the VAR room should be able to decipher these types of decisions very, very speedily.
“I can watch a replay on Sky or TNT and I’m not saying I’m brilliant, but I’ve been in the game quite a long time and I could pretty much make a decision after 30 seconds of watching an incident from three different angles. Maybe a minute, but to take four or five minutes with a team of people around you, and then force the referee to look at it again while nothing is happening in the stadium is wrong, in my opinion.
“The best thing about football games is celebrating when your team scores, and you can’t do that at the moment.
“So, you absolutely need to involve the crowd. There needs to be a replay on the screen to keep the atmosphere in the stadium with everyone jumping down, putting their head in their hands or whatever it might be.
“Football remains a fast-moving game, therefore VAR has got to be quicker and it’s got to be delivered with crowd involvement.”
There’s a school of thought that the more automated version of VAR used at the 2022 World Cup would help to arrive at more accurate decisions quicker, however, it’s believed that the Premier League aren’t interested in adopting that technology at this stage.
One thing is almost certain. If the technology keeps being used in the manner it has been to date, then strong debate will continue to rage.