VARtigue
A day at the football is more than supporting your team, for many its the highlight of the week; for ninety minutes you escape from the stress of bills, overcrowded public transport, angry bosses, and work emails.
Supporting your team, cheering, singing chants, screaming at the opposition, staring in amazement when you see the unbelievable or quivering in pain when school boy errors are a constant. Football is the emotional release many are so desperate for in our over complicated, ever evolving existence.
Technology now threatens to ruin all this with three little letters, V A R.
Over the last few years we have seen many changes to football, both with positive and negative results, endless chequebooks have raised the standard in football in almost every aspect of the game but on the side of the coin we’ve also seen the consequences of when the money runs out.
During the first fortnight of the Premier League we have seen the all conquering (Europe doesn’t count right) Manchester City brought undone by technology, with two marginal calls going against the club, importantly two decisions that would’ve gone in their favour last season.
The most concerning stage regarding VAR is the muffled celebrations we are now seeing, fans are no longer celebrating with their heroes, their attention is far too focused on the referee reaching for his earpiece. We now see a game winning goal and the first reaction we have is one of confusion, when we should be jumping for joy with sheer delight. The referee is the conductor of the orchestra and VAR is the baton.
Whilst the decision making process has been timely we are watching a person completely detached from the game searching for that millimetre of distance between Player A and Player B destroys any ability to experience an emotional release and also manages to dampen the atmostphere and experience in one foul swoop.
One way or another technology rules us throughout the week, now we are letting it dictate our experience at the football, maybe the occasional human error isn’t that bad…
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