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With Video Assistant Referees and Match Review Panels both making decisions after the fact, football runs the risk of destroying the very fabric that makes the game unique.
The news that Besart Berisha has been handed a two-game ban for shoving fourth official Daniel Elder in Melbourne Victory’s spiteful 2-2 draw with Adelaide United last weekend was largely disappointing, if not entirely predictable.
Berisha, with his less than stellar disciplinary record, was in danger of earning a sanction the second he put his hands on Elder. And that’s honestly as it should be.
The excitable Kosovo international shouldn’t have been barging into Adelaide defender Jordan Elsey on the touchline in the first place.
But then should Elder really have been on the pitch?
“I tell you what, Besart Berisha should not be doing that,” said Fox Sports commentator Simon Hill at the time, and from the tone of his voice you could tell there was a feeling Berisha’s shove would attract further scrutiny.
That’s why the MRP exists, and on the whole Berisha probably got off lightly with a two-game ban – plus another two suspended – considering that Danny Vukovic copped a mammoth 15-month ban and missed the Beijing Olympics for slapping the hand of referee Mark Shields in the 2008 grand final.
But if the action hadn’t occurred on the touchline, where Elder happened to be standing and was close enough to intervene, would Berisha now find himself in so much trouble?
If it’s only human for referees to try and position themselves between feuding players, is it not an equally human reaction to try and push them away?
I had been planning to write about the VAR and its impact on Brisbane Roar’s demoralising 2-1 defeat to Newcastle Jets last Sunday afternoon, until the redoubtable Hill beat me to the post.
He may be better known as a commentator, but Hill remains one of the best writers on the game in Australia, and his soon-to-be-released book Just a Gob on a Stick should make for fascinating reading.
Anyone familiar with his writing would know that the tendency to blame officials has long been a bugbear of Hill’s, and he’s right when he says a lack of personal accountability has contributed to a situation where the VAR is now raising more questions than answers.
Originally my view was that with so many decisions analysed in detail on TV broadcasts, it wouldn’t hurt for the referees to also have a look at the same replays.
Yet it’s clear that the VAR is taking away from the spontaneity of the game and robbing fans of the joy of the immediate aftermath of a goal.
And in raking over every single decision with a fine-tooth comb and slowing down the game considerably, the decision-makers are also eliminating one of the very qualities that makes football such a compelling spectacle – the human element.
Still, it must be said that when it comes to Football Federation Australia, they don’t just confine their controversial decisions to what’s happening on the pitch.
‘Damned if they do and damned if they don’t’ probably sums up the decision to award Sydney FC the hosting rights to next month’s FFA Cup final at Adelaide United’s expense.
It was probably the right decision given the Sky Blues have missed out on hosting the final in the past, but here’s an even better idea.
Name some actual criteria around the tournament and stick with it. That way FFA will no longer run the risk of having perceived favourites.
As for VARs and the newfound obsession with replaying every incident, it’s already had a detrimental effect on the game.
Former Socceroo and current Fox Sports analyst Ned Zelic had already tweeted he’d be going on a ‘TV onslaught’ over any decision to suspend Berisha.
It will be well worth watching. Let’s just hope Zelic doesn’t cop a suspension at the end of it.