Weekend Football

[John Madejski's Wallet]

This seems to be doing the rounds. If true, then the tech has surely fukked up

https://x.com/BeersnBlues/status/1782326899303182369

[Dirk Gently]

There's also a problem that the decision given affects the game from that point on, whereas with cricket the ball is dead and they can judge things at their leisure.

If a linesman flags for offside the game stops, so if VAR proves that decision was wrong then how do you recover from stopping a promising attacking situation?

The only answer is for no flag to be raised for tight offside calls and play to go on - but then how can you only correct an "obviously wrong" decision when no decision was actually made?

[Silver Fox]

Errr, not sure if serious but the decision not to flag offside is the decision that gets reviewed

[Winston Biscuit]

There's also a problem that the decision given affects the game from that point on, whereas with cricket the ball is dead and they can judge things at their leisure.

If a linesman flags for offside the game stops, so if VAR proves that decision was wrong then how do you recover from stopping a promising attacking situation?

The only answer is for no flag to be raised for tight offside calls and play to go on - but then how can you only correct an "obviously wrong" decision when no decision was actually made?

on that theme I read a good thing last night which basically said a big part of the publics issue with VAR is that it plays with people's emotions and shows them 'what if' moments. People will simply never like celebrating a moment then having it taken away, even if the decision is 100% correct.

[Snowflake Royal]

Those options likely to be some fairly hot water, given they've basically accused the VAR ref of being corrupt.

Yeah that's outrageous. Hopefully a huge fine and their club account banned from social media posting.

The PGMOL also have some questions to answer if they knowingly used a VAR who supported one of the teams that had an "interest" in the result.

Hasn't Paul already told us that a lot of refs don't declare conflicts so they can still ref those games?

[John Madejski's Wallet]

Seriously, who is a fanatical enough fan that they'd willingly corrupt a sport and put their entire job/career at risk to boot?

Just can't see it being a thing

[Dirk Gently]

Yeah that's outrageous. Hopefully a huge fine and their club account banned from social media posting.

The PGMOL also have some questions to answer if they knowingly used a VAR who supported one of the teams that had an "interest" in the result.

I think they should sue Forest for defamation. These guys are professionals and it's ridiculous to suggest Attwell deliberately made Forest lose.

Isn't the argument for VAR is that it's wholly objective and gives decisions which are based on the facts rather than judgements and opinions?

If this is true (and I'm not saying it is - that's another argument completely) then the PGMOL will no doubt come back and say it doesn't matter who VAR officials support as they can't make subjective decisions that influence matches.

[Snowflake Royal]

Seriously, who is a fanatical enough fan that they'd willingly corrupt a sport and put their entire job/career at risk to boot?

Just can't see it being a thing

That's not the point though. A Conflict of Interest declaration is a safety net to protect everyone of accusations of bias and actual bias.

I have no doubt that the decisions weren’t made to advantage Luton.

I would make professional decisions on anything I had a conflict on. Doesn’t mean I shouldn’t be in the position to make them in those circumstances.

[Greatwesternline]

When I watch cricket and there is a review it happens quickly openly and whichever way it goes i do t mind but with VAR I just have an irrational hatred of the whole thing

Also cricket is all about fine margins. Look at the size of the ball and how short the "pitch" is.

Football has a big ball and is played over a big field. The offside rule exists to stop players goal hanging, not to punish people in line with each other.

The comparison with cricket is a good one, where they have umpires call on LBW shouts for marginal decision. That creates its own controversies; sometimes they say "umpires call" and don't overturn a decision when it looks pretty obvious that the ball was going on to hit the stumps.

It's all well and good saying VAR should only give marginal offsides, but how do you define what is "marginal"? Different viewers will have different opinions. At least the current approach of giving offsides for toenails or eyebrows being off tries to be objective.

Officials in the VAR booth should be more empowered to make a call on what is marginal. For example, they could take a look at yesterday and using the metric of their own feeling, decide not to review.

This sounds crazy but think about how much discretion a referee has on awarding yellow cards, and penalising all manner of situations.

The English interpretation is correct from a pure rules point of view, but officiating doesnt need to be like this, its a decision that has been taken to do it like this. The USEFA ref in Arsenal Bayern literally chose not to award a penalty against Arsenal when their player picked the ball up with his hands. And that's fine, its called using common sense.

[Greatwesternline]

Seriously, who is a fanatical enough fan that they'd willingly corrupt a sport and put their entire job/career at risk to boot?

Just can't see it being a thing

Sensible organisations have conflict of interest policies and enforce them so that they dont have these issues crop up.

Now that we've all seen the chaos that was VAR procedure during the Liverpool Spurs offside blunder, we all know that there aren't enough other people from other industries telling PGMOL how to actually run a process properly.

[Loafer]

Seriously, who is a fanatical enough fan that they'd willingly corrupt a sport and put their entire job/career at risk to boot?

Just can't see it being a thing

You obviously never heard of that nba referee who was corrupt for years and betting in games he was reffing

[BRO_BOT]

enjoyed the video of the Man Utd fans outside Wembley, who quickly left when Cov thought they got the winner, but then heard it was VAR'd out, running to get back into the ground

Can't blame those Man Utd fans it can be tricky getting to Colchester or Croydon on a Sunday night.

Says a LFC fan who lives on the South Coast

[NathStPaul]

enjoyed the video of the Man Utd fans outside Wembley, who quickly left when Cov thought they got the winner, but then heard it was VAR'd out, running to get back into the ground

Can't blame those Man Utd fans it can be tricky getting to Colchester or Croydon on a Sunday night.

Says a LFC fan who lives on the South Coast

[Franchise FC]

Yeah that's outrageous. Hopefully a huge fine and their club account banned from social media posting.

The PGMOL also have some questions to answer if they knowingly used a VAR who supported one of the teams that had an "interest" in the result.

I think they should sue Forest for defamation. These guys are professionals and it's ridiculous to suggest Attwell deliberately made Forest lose.

So your view is that he's not biased, just completely incompetent

[WestYorksRoyal]

The PGMOL also have some questions to answer if they knowingly used a VAR who supported one of the teams that had an "interest" in the result.

I think they should sue Forest for defamation. These guys are professionals and it's ridiculous to suggest Attwell deliberately made Forest lose.

So your view is that he's not biased, just completely incompetent

Yep, and he's still one of the best in the country which is why he's a PL official. We've seen ourselves what they have in the Championship and L1.

And when you see clubs facilitating abuse and conspiracies like Forest are, and setting an example for the grassroots that this behaviour is acceptable, is it any surprise the game struggles to attract enough talent? Clubs who publicly throw toys out of the pram are part of the problem - throw the fcuking book at them.

[Franchise FC]

I think they should sue Forest for defamation. These guys are professionals and it's ridiculous to suggest Attwell deliberately made Forest lose.

So your view is that he's not biased, just completely incompetent

Yep, and he's still one of the best in the country which is why he's a PL official. We've seen ourselves what they have in the Championship and L1.

And when you see clubs facilitating abuse and conspiracies like Forest are, and setting an example for the grassroots that this behaviour is acceptable, is it any surprise the game struggles to attract enough talent? Clubs who publicly throw toys out of the pram are part of the problem - throw the fcuking book at them.

And again, your answer then is that they're shit but they're the best we've got so hard luck on anyone that falls foul of them
Yep, that sounds like the way forward

It seems just like selecting a Tory PM

[Dirk Gently]

So your view is that he's not biased, just completely incompetent

Yep, and he's still one of the best in the country which is why he's a PL official. We've seen ourselves what they have in the Championship and L1.

And when you see clubs facilitating abuse and conspiracies like Forest are, and setting an example for the grassroots that this behaviour is acceptable, is it any surprise the game struggles to attract enough talent? Clubs who publicly throw toys out of the pram are part of the problem - throw the fcuking book at them.

And again, your answer then is that they're shit but they're the best we've got so hard luck on anyone that falls foul of them
Yep, that sounds like the way forward

It seems just like selecting a Tory PM

Shit can be improved - but only as long as you first acknowledge it is shit and focus on improving it. And that's where I think the sticking point will be.

[Franchise FC]

Yep, and he's still one of the best in the country which is why he's a PL official. We've seen ourselves what they have in the Championship and L1.

And when you see clubs facilitating abuse and conspiracies like Forest are, and setting an example for the grassroots that this behaviour is acceptable, is it any surprise the game struggles to attract enough talent? Clubs who publicly throw toys out of the pram are part of the problem - throw the fcuking book at them.

And again, your answer then is that they're shit but they're the best we've got so hard luck on anyone that falls foul of them
Yep, that sounds like the way forward

It seems just like selecting a Tory PM

Shit can be improved - but only as long as you first acknowledge it is shit and focus on improving it. And that's where I think the sticking point will be.

Apparently, when you polish a turd all you get is a polished turd

[paultheroyal]

I will say it again - VAR should only be used for matter of fact things. Ball over the line, challenge awarded inside / outside the box, offside.

Those decisions yesterday were all about opinion and pretty much everyone has one. Let's go back to what we know and pretty much has existed before time - let the referee make the decision on the field of play for all game / contact matters. VAR only comes in for the above.

Its just getting ridiculous now.

[Sanguine]

I will say it again - VAR should only be used for matter of fact things. Ball over the line, challenge awarded inside / outside the box, offside.

Those decisions yesterday were all about opinion and pretty much everyone has one. Let's go back to what we know and pretty much has existed before time - let the referee make the decision on the field of play for all game / contact matters. VAR only comes in for the above.

Its just getting ridiculous now.

Even 'challenge inside/out the box' could be subjective. Really you're advocating just for digital tech to govern the lines on the pitch, and binning VAR. I'd disagree. In VAR we have something that can work, but the standard of officiating seems to be getting worse.