From Liberty to Injustice; the solution to the Championship’s referee woes?

[Andrew - North Hill]

The technology works, it's the idiots using it which are the problem.

I agree to an extent, but there are some scenarios where decisions are still going to be subjective, whether that's the ref making them on the field, or the VAR making them from a booth miles away.

In those instances, I just don't see the point to VAR at all. The ref's made a call that he sees as 51-49. One week the VAR may agree with the ref, the next week they might say no, I think it's 49-51. What's the bloody point? Just get on with it, and go with the ref's decision instead of wasting 5-10 mins wasting everyone's time. And it happens loads.

Nope, it's just goalline tech and semi automated offsides for me. We don't need the rest of it.

 

[LeonWasTheDogs]

With the amount of cash floating around the Championship VAR has to come, like it or lump it. Its not perfect but 99% of the decisions like the disallowed goal at Brum should be sorted.

I agree that we need it, but also dread it being implemented because it sucks the joy out of the game. Were between a rock and a hard place on this.

 

[LeonWasTheDogs]

I agree to an extent, but there are some scenarios where decisions are still going to be subjective, whether that's the ref making them on the field, or the VAR making them from a booth miles away.

In those instances, I just don't see the point to VAR at all. The ref's made a call that he sees as 51-49. One week the VAR may agree with the ref, the next week they might say no, I think it's 49-51. What's the bloody point? Just get on with it, and go with the ref's decision instead of wasting 5-10 mins wasting everyone's time. And it happens loads.

Nope, it's just goalline tech and semi automated offsides for me. We don't need the rest of it.

Absolutely this. It gets the black and white decisions right, like offsides (mostly). But where the Laws of the Game are open to subjectivity, which is often, it makes little difference other than giving another opportunity to correct obvious errors. Plenty of errors are still made even with VAR.

 

[johnjubal1958]

Either that or have more referees for the referees at the games... Dishing out cards every time the ref gets a decision wrong. But then, who referees the referees referee?? More referees?

The only problem with VAR is human error - an issue we've seen a number of times in the past. No system is without its faults, but it can't be any worse than it currently is!

Automatic Offside sounds good and that technology is available like goal line technology. An additional Ref (swapping at the half way line) or linesmen more up in the final 3rd? I believe the linesman was right on this occasion, and the Sky commentary team didn't help by stating, "I looks like Birmingham got away with one there"! I'm sure their is a way around the problem and AI could give an immediate and accurate conclusions which removes human errors but also supports them! With a human in the chain it is inevitable error is going to an option to those who 'are' bias and every fan knows this is a fact of life!

 

[PenlanJack]

The current hand ball law is crap, refs make their decisions on a whim on that particular day and VAR just agrees with them, it's not definitive and needs to be cleared up

 

[CommonCents]

I hate VAR, it takes the spontaneous reactions out of football. Can never really celebrate a goal as you are always waiting for confirmation.

 

[PenlanJack]

I hate VAR, it takes the spontaneous reactions out of football. Can never really celebrate a goal as you are always waiting for confirmation.

As people in this thread have said, VAR isn't the problem, it's the people using it, foreign VAR and Rugby run smoothly, the Premier League refs earn 100k+ and international and champions league fees, foreign refs who are far superior earn less. Dropping them down a league for a weekend isn't the answer

 

[johnjubal1958]

It's evidently a serious problem with ref's now more than ever it seems! The errors appear more blaintant!? Yet the coaches can't dare comment publicly in a negative way because of the consequences the club will have to face later! They are forced to say something like, "it all balances itself out in the end"! They also say after a game, "it made the difference of success (promotion) or failure (religation) which is a contradiction to it all works out in the end! I this VP goal I would give the linesman the benefit of the doubt and he got it right. Can I be sure? No I can't because we are talking spit seconds that makes all the difference between getting it right or wrong! AI can measure everything in real time. From a deliberate handball or not for example. It can take into account the pace of the ball, the distance from the balls ititial moment (kick throw etc...) and the humans reaction time. It can register an offside far quicker than a human can. Don't get me wrong I hate the idea of a calculator dictating the out come of game. However, it's clear we haven't got a choice due to the increasing obvious errors by game officials!

 

[SeaJack]

I’m all for VAR being brought closer to the action, where we have the big stadium screens plus the screens that are available to the coaches/managers in the dugout to refer to.

As it stands, it all feels rather disjointed having a VAR official making decisions from on high in another part of the country.

This, in turn, causes the technology to appear clunky rather than slick and unobtrusive.

Integration is key, I feel, to making it flow better during a game and what I allude to in my first paragraph would aid in this desired outcome.

Unfortunately, no matter how professional the match day officials are supposed to be, you can’t rule out the possibility of there being any biases and errors inherent in their judgements.

Couple that with those players that attempt to con referees, sometimes successfully, into awarding a decision in their teams favour, and you have the potential for a match to be strewn with inaccurate calls which can tip the scales unfairly and win a game for a team that otherwise, didn’t deserve to do so.

Also, to compound matters, the game has sped up to such a speed now, that appearances can be deceiving to the naked eye. This isn’t the fault of the officials per se, it’s just how the game has developed and evolved over the years.

Therefore, there can be little doubt that they need a helping hand and, if that means including the all seeing eye that VAR provides, then so be it.

As you can guess, I very much don’t see eye to eye with those that want to bin it altogether, as I would venture that that is like throwing the baby out with the bathwater.

As for not being able to celebrate a goal immediately as it’s scored, I feel that that is a small price to pay, when you consider how costly it is for a team when a goal is allowed to stand that was scored unfairly according to the officiating rulebook.

Rugby does just fine with their version of VAR, so why should it be any different with football?

Besides, there’s too much riding on each and every decision for club and team, both financially on the spreadsheet and positionally in the table, for the sport not to rely on the technology that’s already readily available.

 

[Frankie Burrows Cap]

I’m all for VAR being brought closer to the action, where we have the big stadium screens plus the screens that are available to the coaches/managers in the dugout to refer to.

As it stands, it all feels rather disjointed having a VAR official making decisions from on high in another part of the country.

This, in turn, causes the technology to appear clunky rather than slick and unobtrusive.

Integration is key, I feel, to making it flow better during a game and what I allude to in my first paragraph would aid in this desired outcome.

Unfortunately, no matter how professional the match day officials are supposed to be, you can’t rule out the possibility of there being any biases and errors inherent in their judgements.

Couple that with those players that attempt to con referees, sometimes successfully, into awarding a decision in their teams favour, and you have the potential for a match to be strewn with inaccurate calls which can tip the scales unfairly and win a game for a team that otherwise, didn’t deserve to do so.

Also, to compound matters, the game has sped up to such a speed now, that appearances can be deceiving to the naked eye. This isn’t the fault of the officials per se, it’s just how the game has developed and evolved over the years.

Therefore, there can be little doubt that they need a helping hand and, if that means including the all seeing eye that VAR provides, then so be it.

As you can guess, I very much don’t see eye to eye with those that want to bin it altogether, as I would venture that that is like throwing the baby out with the bathwater.

As for not being able to celebrate a goal immediately as it’s scored, I feel that that is a small price to pay, when you consider how costly it is for a team when a goal is allowed to stand that was scored unfairly according to the officiating rulebook.

Rugby does just fine with their version of VAR, so why should it be any different with football?

Besides, there’s too much riding on each and every decision for club and team, both financially on the spreadsheet and positionally in the table, for the sport not to rely on the technology that’s already readily available.

Agree with most of that but it’s impossible to compare the implementation in different sports.

Rugby is naturally much more stop start and as such supporters are more comfortable with 5 minute delays in order to get the ‘correct decision’ numerous times in a game.

It also has the advantage (like every other team sport at the top level) that timekeeping is transparent for those in the ground and not at the whim of the match official which definitely adds to the frustration.

Football should have looked more closely at the successes of technology in other sports but it was never going to be as simple as copy and paste.

 

[johnjubal1958]

I’m all for VAR being brought closer to the action, where we have the big stadium screens plus the screens that are available to the coaches/managers in the dugout to refer to.

As it stands, it all feels rather disjointed having a VAR official making decisions from on high in another part of the country.

This, in turn, causes the technology to appear clunky rather than slick and unobtrusive.

Integration is key, I feel, to making it flow better during a game and what I allude to in my first paragraph would aid in this desired outcome.

Unfortunately, no matter how professional the match day officials are supposed to be, you can’t rule out the possibility of there being any biases and errors inherent in their judgements.

Couple that with those players that attempt to con referees, sometimes successfully, into awarding a decision in their teams favour, and you have the potential for a match to be strewn with inaccurate calls which can tip the scales unfairly and win a game for a team that otherwise, didn’t deserve to do so.

Also, to compound matters, the game has sped up to such a speed now, that appearances can be deceiving to the naked eye. This isn’t the fault of the officials per se, it’s just how the game has developed and evolved over the years.

Therefore, there can be little doubt that they need a helping hand and, if that means including the all seeing eye that VAR provides, then so be it.

As you can guess, I very much don’t see eye to eye with those that want to bin it altogether, as I would venture that that is like throwing the baby out with the bathwater.

As for not being able to celebrate a goal immediately as it’s scored, I feel that that is a small price to pay, when you consider how costly it is for a team when a goal is allowed to stand that was scored unfairly according to the officiating rulebook.

Rugby does just fine with their version of VAR, so why should it be any different with football?

Besides, there’s too much riding on each and every decision for club and team, both financially on the spreadsheet and positionally in the table, for the sport not to rely on the technology that’s already readily available.

Human intervention is the problem because the can't agree when it's quite obvious. Ambiguity is the root of the problem, period! AI can and will remove that instantaneously! It's available here and now but always with the power players it's still on the back burner!!!

 

[Frankie Burrows Cap]

Human intervention is the problem because the can't agree when it's quite obvious. Ambiguity is the root of the problem, period! AI can and will remove that instantaneously! It's available here and now but always with the power players it's still on the back burner!!!

Having just watched Match of the Day it’s hard to argue with that.

How they came to some of the conclusions, despite having access to all technology, I have no idea. Simply a case of human error (incompetence).

 

[CommonCents]

I hate VAR as it means every decision is analysed to the max. I would give each team 1 review challenge to use, which they retain if they get the challenge correct. If they get it wrong then tough, nothing further is reviewed for that team.

It puts it back in the hands of the team.

 

[Smurph]

I hate VAR as it means every decision is analysed to the max. I would give each team 1 review challenge to use, which they retain if they get the challenge correct. If they get it wrong then tough, nothing further is reviewed for that team.

It puts it back in the hands of the team.

I don't mind Var, it's the people using it and the time it take them to make their minds up. I feel that half the time they are too frightened to do the right thing.

Saying that we could have done with it yesterday.

 

[Swanjaxs]

I don't mind Var, it's the people using it and the time it take them to make their minds up. I feel that half the time they are too frightened to do the right thing.

Saying that we could have done with it yesterday.

What i cant understand for the life of me is why didn't the linesman step in he would have had a perfect view looking along the line, basically, he shat out.