The VAR system being used in Premier League football matches is clearly failing, in fact, it's failed and quite miserably.
I thought that it was to be used to help referees in situations in which there were clear and obvious errors; obvious handballs, fouls or offsides that had been missed, or obvious examples of such offences being adjudged to have occurred which were erroneous.
In the event, VAR has become the arbiter of the most marginal decisions, overruling goals, awarding penalties and more, frequently after minutes of consideration and in situations that are nowhere near "clear and obvious". Offsides determined by a matter of fractions of millimetres and goals disallowed as a result. Penalties awarded, or not, by similarly tiny margins.
These decisions are not being taken by the referee and other officials at the matches but by someone sitting in front of a television screen miles, even hundreds of miles, away. It's ridiculous and, as has been said by many respected pundits, the system must be changed.
One hopes that the elephantine bureaucracies of the FA and Premier League will react and that things will improve quickly. One equally doubts that such hopes will be fulfilled any time soon.
No comments:
Post a Comment