In this deep dive into VAR and all of its impacts, I'm first going to go straight in studs-up at the major negatives I feel it brings to football.
I hate to refer back to the 'good old days', like your gran saying she used to go to the shops with a couple pound and come back with the weeks shopping. However, it seems justified in order to understand, truly, how much VAR has changed the game. I think I don't speak alone here when I say that the idea of VAR is currently still better than how it is being executed. The idea is to eliminate the human errors of a referee and the other officiating staff. So that, ultimately, the match can run fairly and smoothly and for the outcome to be decided based on the merit of the respective teams rather than an unjust decision made by the referee.
To an extent this is the case (which the next blog will cover) but there are still some major flaws present that are harming the game. The one that sticks out for me is how stop-start it can make a match seem. One of the main reasons I fell in love with football is how high tempo and fast-paced it is. Club competitions such as the Champions League and the English Premier League have always been the best for this, but, sadly, I feel even these matches are beginning to lose this special element because of VAR and its robotic interpretations. For instance, it can take several minutes for decisions to be made on the most minor instances because every last detail is slowed down and checked from every possible camera angle. This could be at a key part in the match where a team are looking to build momentum and possibly equalise and they are being held up for several minuted because big number 9's nose was offside in the previous attack.
Ironically, another angle to look at VAR from is how it drains the raw passion and emotion out of the game, which is politely expressed by the fans in the picture above. Every football fan would have dreamt at some point in their life of scoring a last minute winner and celebrating with their fans. Therefore, I can't think of anything worse than this actually happening to a player only to be forced to wait a lifetime to see if the goal is being awarded or not. It can be even worse for people at home watching who have no idea whether they can celebrate or not.
It is this uncertainty that still remains with VAR and if not changed significantly, be very harmful to the beautiful game and the sheer joy and passion it brings out in millions.
The next post, believe it or not, will see me try and find the positives to VAR. So look forward to that.
Cheers, Leon x
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