VAR From Perfect
The opening round of the A-League season was ruined by the “Video Assistant Referee” and the season will head down this path if we continue to incorrectly use an over complicated system.
Ned Zelic summed it up perfectly when he -stated “It’s like they’ve been handed the keys to a Ferrari – but instead of driving out of the garage and cruising around they’ve reversed into the backyard swimming pool”.
The embarrassing VAR situation single-handedly took the fans out of the game on Saturday nights Melbourne Derby and any momentum Melbourne Victory had on the night. Referee Kurt Ams made an error with awarding Bruno Fornaroli a free kick just outside the box, but upon this being referred to VAR the decision was changed to award Melbourne City a penalty as the ‘foul’ had taken place inside the penalty area. Normally I wouldn’t have an issue with this but there WAS NO FOUL on Fornaroli as he flopped on the ground under very little (if any) contact to the benefit of his team. The fourth official should’ve picked this up upon watching the footage half a dozen times instead he was overawed with tunnel vision and was only looking to see whether the incident took place inside or outside the box.
VAR has failed the A-League too many times and has now reached shambolic areas, without a major change in the system this season will too follow this path.
When VAR was introduced it was only to fix the glaring and obvious errors, I was not free licence to look at every decision with a fine-tooth comb. If the VARcical situation continues people will stop attending games in droves.
For starters the decisions made from VAR take way too long, the game is interrupted, momentum is lost and/or shifted and those in the stands are thoroughly bored with the situation or simply have their head in their hands as another decision will reflect poorly upon our game. When you watch tennis, the decision is made quickly and effectively because the ball is either in or out, it’s black and white unlike the many complexities of football which leave many grey areas. We ask our referees to interpret many rules depending on situations and we cannot expect technology to aid us in this situation.
The A-League needs to find a way to make decisions both quickly ad correctly, no one at home wants to see super slow-motion or frame by frame action to see what decision should be made. If we need slow motion in assisting us with decisions it should automatically be refereed back to the field and the original referee’s decision. If decisions cannot be made in 45 seconds, play on I say. If the error is glaring it will be picked up, if not then I can live with a few 50/50 decisions throughout the course of the season instead of humans using technology to destroy the passion for our game.
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