Craved and\nanticipated by all, the technology that was seen in the World Cup, tested in\nthe Champion\u2019s League, tried in Italy and expected to be perfected in England,\nperfected in the greatest, most funded league on the face of the earth. The\nstage was set, and the curtains drawn. Exuberant fans undone by last season\u2019s\nnon-calls had their tails high in their backs – the saviour had arrived. But a\ndifferent narrative was being brewed. At least that\u2019s what they thought. Video\nAssistance Referee (VAR) has been on show since day one of the 2019\/2020\nEnglish Premier League season, and saying it hasn\u2019t been great would be the\nunderstatement of the century. Questions of what could have been prior to the\ninception of such newfangled technology have often been asked. After all, World\nCups won with forearms and \u2018clotheslines\u2019 went unpunished in the box. Those\ndays were now gone for good… but were they really?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Consistently\nInconsistent…<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n The\ndissipation of VAR has been the talking point of the English Premier League in\neach of the 12 weeks of fixtures to date. \u2018How is it humanly possible for them\nto be getting it so awfully wrong?\u2019 was the question on the lips of fans,\nplayers and managers alike. Conspiracy theorists will formulate dubious\nconclusions, but to the outsider looking in, it may make far more sense than\nsome of the foolish explanations the FA has so far sought to put forward to\njustify some decisions made. John Lundstram forgot to cut his toenail before\nSheffield United\u2019s game versus Tottenham Hotspur and it cost his team 3 points,\nas such was the margin which ultimately ruled him offside in the build-up to a\ngoal. Fast forward a few hours later and reigning champions Manchester City\nwept openly as a genuine shout for a handball offense in the box was adamantly\nwaved away by referee Michael Oliver – a similar offence earned Chelsea a\npenalty in their game against Ajax literally three days earlier. Which was the\ncorrect call? Football is not a game in black and white and as such, making\ndecisions with that approach will set you up to fail miserably. What we can\nagree on though is if we\u2019re constantly seeing conflicting decisions from\nindividuals with identical training and guidelines, it will ultimately result\nin widespread confusion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Assistance\nmeans HELP!<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n The\ntechnology is magnificent, and its addition can still make the league better.\nHowever, the consistency and transparency surrounding controversial calls are\nthe reasons for the cries of foul. As is the case with all forms of technology,\na lot is left on the effective and efficient use of it. The officials\nmonitoring the use of VAR have drastically underperformed and continue to do\nso. Their expertise on the game itself is obviously limited to officiating as\nthey\u2019re basically referees behind a screen. Having said this, the same\ndecisions that they would have made on the pitch are reflecting when they are\nbehind the screen and this should not be the case. Video-Assistance-Referee, as\nthe \u201cA\u201d states \u2018Assistance\u2019, is there to\nhelp with their decision \u2013 not to make\nthe decisions for them, nor to be ignored while they decide. Both are to be\nworking in tandem to make a transparent decision that can be understood by all\nwithout requiring prolonged explanations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n A wise\ndecision would be putting former players alongside referees in the VAR booth\nand urge referees to visit the pitch-side screens more often (no referee has\nused the pitch-side screen this season). Maybe then actual players would have\nan idea why calls were made\/not made. Millions of dollars are pumped into the\nleague each year and with television rights coming in from all angles of the\nglobe, it won\u2019t be long before corruption enters the discussion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n At the\ncurrent rate, rules in the league will be changing weekly and what we thought\nwe knew will fast become mere illusions. The English Premier League will have\nonly one winner (VAR) and the remaining teams will be sore losers whining in\nassumptions of what could\u2019ve been.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Subscribe to HalftimeTv on YouTube with hosts Norando Brown and Darius Burris for in-depth weekly analyses of the most relevant and intriguing sporting stories.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Craved and anticipated by all, the technology that was seen in the World Cup, tested in the Champion\u2019s League, tried in Italy and expected to be perfected in England, perfected in the greatest, most funded league on the face of the earth. The stage was set, and the curtains drawn. Exuberant fans undone by last […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":3227,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[1638,1636,1635,1637,1634],"class_list":["post-3226","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-decisions","tag-english-premier-league","tag-international-sports","tag-referees","tag-var"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/westernmirror.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3226","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/westernmirror.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/westernmirror.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/westernmirror.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/westernmirror.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3226"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/westernmirror.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3226\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3228,"href":"https:\/\/westernmirror.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3226\/revisions\/3228"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/westernmirror.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/3227"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/westernmirror.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3226"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/westernmirror.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3226"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/westernmirror.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3226"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}