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Opinion
Sadly, one of the main talking points of the 2019-20 Premier League season and world football in general has to be VAR.
It is often the victim of criticism from raging fans, who behave like children when a virtual assistant referee call doesn’t go their way. This is quite ironic considering many of these very fans were crying and screaming for its introduction years prior.
Despite their immaturity and lack of football knowledge, their complaints miraculously are justified and what they’re dealing with should not be tolerated in what is the most celebrated and esteemed league in the world.
Although VAR falls victim to criticism from these types of fans, it has been hated throughout all ranks of the sport, and definitely doesn’t stop at the typical throwaway comment. Ex-legends like Jamie Carragher through to players such as Declan Rice have expressed their differences with it. And why it does fall victim is due to a multitude of reasons.
One more popular reason is that it leaves players and fans second-guessing themselves and takes out the natural reactions and heights of football. VAR creates this lingering thought that whatever significant moment on the field that has occurred could potentially be ruled out minutes later.
The logical reaction and adaptation to this thought over time is to avoid celebrating at all to save yourself from looking like a fool once officials determine their decision. And this half-hearted reaction or absence of any reaction is where VAR succeeds in killing the essence of football itself: the raw out-pour of emotion seeing your team or teammate scoring a goal or making a goal-line tackle.
What experience is something when the main part of it is being stolen? This is a major part of why VAR should be axed from the Premier League as of next season.
(Oli Scarff / AFP)
A more insightful view on the effects of the introduction of VAR is that with this absence of human error, games are less controversial and more robotic. Games such as Chelsea versus Barcelona in 2009 at Stamford Bridge are historically renowned for the stinker of a performance the referee displayed and the controversy of star Chelsea man Didier Drogba losing his mind on live TV, staring right down the camera while being dragged off by his teammates and claiming the game was a joke.
Games, moments and the collection of emotions that this provided for football fans around the world all spurred from the performance of the referee alone and his consistent human error throughout the night. Without this, historical moments like this game wouldn’t be possible and with the introduction of VAR, this is the first major step for football growing into a robotic sport.
In saying this, it would be wrong to deny that VAR doesn’t provide controversy with its own faults in the system. A memorable game under the VAR era was Manchester City versus Tottenham in the Champions League, with Raheem Sterling scoring in the final minute and berserk celebrations playing out, only for VAR to rule out the goal for a prior handball.
Although these are fantastic mixed emotional moments provided by VAR, it goes that step further with toying with the purest of emotions that football fanatics live for. For that reason it creates a sense of wrongness and leaves these people with post-traumatic stress.
Many that are in agreement that VAR ruins aspects of football argue that if VAR is modified to factor in human error or realism, it would work well. For example, adding a thicker line when making offside calls, and allowing handballs when players are in natural positions.
This would allow less drama around the tedious offside calls with the players being a fingertip offside and allow referees to pull up players on fouls that may slip under the radar. The irony, stupidity and tediousness of VAR is as broad as daylight when talking about this.
To add human error into a robotic machine rather than eliminating this machine altogether and getting real human error makes no sense. Although VAR stopping players from breaking rules may be positive for the game in creating justice, this addition of human error would completely contradict the purpose of introducing VAR in the first place, which was to eliminate this error and to stop players from getting away with fouls.
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