Complaining about VAR is just what they want, of course. The more publicity, the more traction it gets, further cements its place at the centre of the game and our mental well-being, having first sky(sports)rocketed there in 2018. The rant I am about to go on will be as pointless as the thing itself, but do you starve attention-grabbing provocateurs of the oxygen they crave or does that make you complicit, even a supporter? You can now, via modern means, call out celebrity baddies as well as challenge your ignorant in-laws, but while affecting change seems more hopeful when applied to direct relationships, VAR is the untouchable enemy protected by self interests and profit. It feels like we are helpless viewers watching Wallace from Wallace and Gromit putting together another well-meaning invention that will harm the world, but without Gromit there to stop the evil doings.
The agitators of VAR were the beleaguered managers on the wrong end of a tight decision that week in conjunction with armchair fans who needed an outlet for their rage and were not content with just goal line technology; the ‘there’s too much at stake now’ line, with an extra coating of ‘people’s livelihoods are at risk’.
Those managers are mostly out of work now, their trotters up like David Cameron, having poured on the petrol and then fucked off when the fire came. But the rise of the machine was inevitable, marching forward like Cybermen unveiled by hapless buffoons trumpeting a revolution of the game as we know it. If we can put people on the moon, we’ll find a way to do that, if we can watch a programme on one side and still get to see the one on the other side that’s on at the same time, we’ll sort that. Likewise, if we can exterminate a goal because there might have been an offside that no one’s seen or appealed for and is almost not offside, leave it with us…what do you mean, you didn’t actually want that?
I had a problem with goal line technology at first - the idea of averting one injustice without paying attention to the rest, but I had to admit there was something satisfying about the simple efficiency of it, not to mention the elimination of all the mithering - or at least, the mithering on that front. Not that mithering is a bad thing; it can be both liberating and amusing, but in football it has helped ease the path of Big Brother’s entry. In city centres and banks, cameras are essential; to deploy them in football is less compelling an argument, but as the mithering went, people on telly can see the injustice but not the ref, how is that right? No one English gives a shit that Geoff Hurst’s shot didn’t go over the line, but when it’s your team on the wrong end, or a pundit is emphatically earning their right to be called back to the studio next week, a cauldron will start to bubble.
Six years on from its entry into the mainstream, VAR is still there - despite, or fuelled by, the mass of dissenting voices -throwing deckchairs off the titanic every weekend and midweek. We were told, or at least I remember Gary Lineker telling us (at the beginning of Russia 2018) that VAR would only come into play to intervene in the absolute “howlers” - your Maradona and Henry handballs, your Lampard ‘over the line’ no-goal, your wild Tevez offside that stood. This proved to be balls, notably in the Final of Russia ‘18 when the ref was asked to award a penalty against France that only VAR was asking for. Now, we are told that VAR will definitely - promise - only pipe up for the clear and obvs errors. Still this proves to be balls. The examples I’m about to give from over the last week of English football include those that went against my team and went for the local rivals of my team, which is very apt of course, as self-interest is exactly the vehicle that has got to us where we are today.
Brighton and Hove Albion versus Arsenal last weekend, January 4th. There had been controversy in the corresponding fixture when VAR had influenced a second yellow card for Declan Rice, who’d tapped the ball away after the whistle prompting Jan Veltman to rise from the turf and kick Rice, pretending he was aiming to take the free kick. The decision to dismiss Rice was retrospectively compounded by Brighton forward Joao Pedro booting the ball down the touch line in the same circumstances and not receiving a booking. I honestly think that if the ref had given Rice red for the first yellow, a late lunge, I could have lived easier with the entirely human decision made. This perhaps contradicts my issue with Brighton’s equaliser at the Amex Stadium in the return, but I’m confident I will regain credibility by the end of this. Last week, with Brighton 1-0 down to Arsenal, again Pedro is once more a leading figure in the fallout. He heads the ball sideways in the Arsenal penalty area, Arsenal centre half William Saliba goes to make a header, colliding with Pedro, Pedro crashes to the ground holding his face. Ref Anthony Taylor hesitates, then points to the spot. About 4 hours later (no, not the duration of the VAR check) Match of the Day commentator, Jonathan Pearce is heard vindicating Taylor’s decision after the slow-motion replay and later sucks up to Brighton manager Fabian Hurzeler during the post-match interview about it. Hurzeler had answered that it was a clear penalty, which he may or not believe, there’s mounting evidence that he’s a shit-stirring little turd (my biased views are my own.) Back to the studio, and Lineker, not a seasoned Arsenal cheerleader, dismisses Hurzeler’s self-righteous smirk, backing up Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta’s words that he’d never seen anything like that penalty decision before. In addition, further analysis of the incident showed that Saliba’s head had actually made contact with the ball before connecting with Pedro. VAR clearly hadn’t seen what someone in the MOTD cutting room had, and later it transpired that it had been a very quick check. Which is fine, nobody wants (actually it’s hard to know what people want), I don’t want, emotion-sapping delays to the game over every penalty box incident (and it is the penalty box where VAR invariably operates, as only goals seem to be the focus, as if everything leading up to it is of no consequence) and Taylor has every right to give a penalty if he thinks it’s one, furthermore if there is no immediate clear and obvious error, the decision should stand.
But…
December 8th, Fulham vs Arsenal. The score is 1-1 with just a couple of minutes left when Bukayo Saka runs in from the right to head a Gabriel Martinelli cross past home goalkeeper, Bernd Leno, a vital moment in the title race, Arsenal staying within reach of Liverpool as Saka takes the acclaim of the away support and dispirited Fulham players trudge back to towards the halfway line. Then the ref is told, after a four-minute VAR check, that Martinelli had strayed fractionally offside when receiving the ball - the customary toe-nail - and the goal is disallowed. A four-minute check does not associate itself with ‘clear and obvious’, nor the toe-nail, nor the lack of protests from Fulham.
Back to the Brighton game now.
An unexplored controversy was Pedro’s presence on the pitch in the first place. In Brighton’s previous game on December 30th (two days before Arsenal’s, I’ll just get that in there) at Aston Villa, Pedro swung an elbow deliberately intended for the face of Pau Torres, who’d been pulling his shirt. As the commentator on MOTD said, you can be dismissed for violent intent, but as I said, VAR aren’t interested in anything outside the penalty area that doesn’t result in a goal that they can chalk off, so Pedro was free to play and affect their next match against Arsenal. I do not say that Fulham wouldn’t have found time to equalise Saka’s goal nor that Brighton wouldn’t have got one without the penalty, but 4 points have arguably been denied Arsenal there. Arsenal finished 2nd by 2 points last season. That in itself is perhaps too a simplistic point; maybe Liverpool only drew with Man United at home the day after the draw at Brighton because they were in a subconscious comfort zone. But maybe, too, that isn’t the point.
Wednesday January 8th, Tottenham Hotspur vs Liverpool, Carabao Cup semi-final. A potentially historic night and momentous occasion. 5 Live commentator, John Murray, had been far too professional to say anything more than that about the prospect of a VAR announcement to the crowd, though once The Emirates, mercifully, hadn’t become the first venue in England to be sullied by that monstrosity during the previous night’s other semi between Arsenal and Newcastle Utd, Darren Fletcher similarly played up the looming threat at Spurs. Hopefully, the Tottenham Hotspur stadium will be the only ground where it happened. When the time came, following an offside call against Tottenham’s Dominik Solanke, the crowd ordered itself into an abrupt communal hush on the ref’s audio whistle, as if an impromptu one minute silence had been signalled. What followed was appropriately mournful, ref Stuart Atwell verbally confirming a decision with no more information that couldn’t have been displayed on the scoreboard as usual - just as had happened during the Women’s World Cup in 2023. Co-commentator Michael Brown was scathing of the announcement, but I’m not sure what he expected.
An equal talking point was Tottenham’s winning goal, scored a few minutes from the end and just after Tottenham midfielder, 18 year old Swedish midfielder, Lucas Begvall had ‘escaped’ a second yellow card for a foul on Liverpool left back, Tsimikas, who was off the field receiving treatment when the goal went in. I appreciated the post-match remarks of both managers, Liverpool’s Arne Slot saying it was unfortunate that Attwell hadn’t been asked to announce the decision not to send off Begvall. Of course, as stated, VAR aren’t interested in anything that doesn’t happen near a goal, but I resonated with the sarcasm. Ange Postecoglou disputed the opinion that Begvall’s first challenge was a yellow, adding “we’ve been screaming for that all season”. I know how it feels when something that’s gone against you consistently without interference then goes for you and suddenly sparks attention. Then there was his pleasantly anticipated grump over the VAR announcement, adding that only he, an Aussie, seemed to be the one railing against the increasing deformity of our game.
Consistency of course was an oft-repeated droan pre-VAR, and everyone will have their stories of despair and injustice. Perhaps people were actually soothed by the idea of technology removing, or at least reducing, the unfairness, which albeit is a reality of life and sport. In 2009-10, Arsenal drew 0-0 at home to Sunderland after Andrei Arshavin had two goals disallowed for offside that weren’t even close to offside, and yet the next week, Sunderland manager Steve Bruce was whining on about his team being on the wrong end of poor officialdom.
I don’t have a problem with Pedro booting the ball away after the whistle or throwing an elbow at an Aston Villa irritant, or Begvall arriving late to a challenge. I don’t have a problem with human error. I have a problem instead with stodgy and unnecessary interference. It isn’t what you start playing the game for.
During team training sessions as a child, my team mates and I would get frustrated with the manager stopping play every few minutes to make points about our game play, but I know now, and probably did then, that it was designed to improve us as players and as a team.
I don’t get that with VAR.
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