Lots to unpick in that, good article

Struck by two things.

Firstly, in the opening story why couldn’t England just ask VAR ‘was that a red?’ Instead of effectively ducking the question by guessing and issuing a yellow knowing VAR will step in if he was wrong.

Secondly, the issue I have with VAR is highlighted by these lines:

(1) “The law book is just a framework,” (Marriner)
(2) ‘ Once, when Rosetti experimented with using VAR to review every incident in a single match, he found seven penalties and three red cards, according to a strict reading of the laws of the game. “But this is not football,” he said’

So we either have laws that are implemented as written (which VAR will eventually be fine for, when AI takes over) or we just have a set of guidelines that refs can apply subjectively. If we have the latter, VAR in its current format won’t ever really work as you are just adding one subjective opinion onto another. You’d need a much larger group of VAR officials to create some sort of group consensus.

Posted By: CWC, Mar 21, 19:37:53