I do think one of VAR's major problems is that it is manned solely by a referee with ambitions in refereeing, who is both a colleague and maybe even rival for big games of the man in the middle. Surely it should be a respected retired from actual physical refereeing man or woman?
The "clear and obvious" dictum is also a problem. It means the VAR is telling the man in the middle "I think you got it wrong". Shouldn't he be able to say, "It's a really tight one, you may want to view it again ..." and then it might not be an absolute cert' that the ref' is going to overturn his original decision. His VAR is actually helping HIM to get it right.
The rules aren't helping either. Offside is now a farce. Assistants don't raise flags, so if play isn't stopped your team might win a corner despite having had two of its forward players clearly in offside positions. Your team scores from the corner, the opposition has a conniption fit. And handball has become a joke too. Why aren't the two guiding principles just whether it is deliberate or accidental, and whether the player or team gained an advantage they wouldn't otherwise have had? Unnatural position, ollocks! I'm waiting for the first person with Tourette's to concede a penalty for hands due to an involuntary movement. And as for corner kicks, just don't get me started, five minutes to go 1-0 up bring on a few specialist wrestlers to keep hold of the opposition danger men!
And if that weren't enough, 99% of the players out there think cheating is okay and even pundits and commentators will give the nod to taking one for the team and trying it on, writhing and screaming when hardly touched. The true value of sport is learning to take the rough with the smooth, playing within the rules and respecting your opponent. None of those now apply in sport or life, so let's threaten to bomb Harry Maguire, smash Jon Moss's shop window, trip Martin Atkinson's missus up in the supermarket ...... but that's people for you, it's just that now we all have more access to each other and can broadcast our idiot anger far and wide. And the impulse isn't new. When I played amateur men's football at a reasonable level 50 years ago I could name at least three opposition teams whose female supporters always took along their umbrellas to the game. If you were lucky they were only likely to try and trip your winger, if they took a dislike to you they weren't averse to giving any unwary opposition player a good whack.
The human element is the problem and the trouble is, however obnoxious, everyone involved classifies as peeps (just). Old bloke's rants ends.
The "clear and obvious" dictum is also a problem. It means the VAR is telling the man in the middle "I think you got it wrong". Shouldn't he be able to say, "It's a really tight one, you may want to view it again ..." and then it might not be an absolute cert' that the ref' is going to overturn his original decision. His VAR is actually helping HIM to get it right.
The rules aren't helping either. Offside is now a farce. Assistants don't raise flags, so if play isn't stopped your team might win a corner despite having had two of its forward players clearly in offside positions. Your team scores from the corner, the opposition has a conniption fit. And handball has become a joke too. Why aren't the two guiding principles just whether it is deliberate or accidental, and whether the player or team gained an advantage they wouldn't otherwise have had? Unnatural position, ollocks! I'm waiting for the first person with Tourette's to concede a penalty for hands due to an involuntary movement. And as for corner kicks, just don't get me started, five minutes to go 1-0 up bring on a few specialist wrestlers to keep hold of the opposition danger men!
And if that weren't enough, 99% of the players out there think cheating is okay and even pundits and commentators will give the nod to taking one for the team and trying it on, writhing and screaming when hardly touched. The true value of sport is learning to take the rough with the smooth, playing within the rules and respecting your opponent. None of those now apply in sport or life, so let's threaten to bomb Harry Maguire, smash Jon Moss's shop window, trip Martin Atkinson's missus up in the supermarket ...... but that's people for you, it's just that now we all have more access to each other and can broadcast our idiot anger far and wide. And the impulse isn't new. When I played amateur men's football at a reasonable level 50 years ago I could name at least three opposition teams whose female supporters always took along their umbrellas to the game. If you were lucky they were only likely to try and trip your winger, if they took a dislike to you they weren't averse to giving any unwary opposition player a good whack.
The human element is the problem and the trouble is, however obnoxious, everyone involved classifies as peeps (just). Old bloke's rants ends.