VAR Very Average Refereeing

[Backbiter]

Interestingly we had a goal ruled out for handball today which was arguably his shoulder. Now if VAR doesn't deem it to be a clear and obvious mistake they can't overule the decision. Therefore, the hand ball was given. How is this different to the offside that VAR overruled for Timo, clearly that wasn't clear and obvious so why did they overule it.

I find the rules confusing, I may be missing something here so fair play if someone can explain but from where I'm sitting there is no consistency.

The 'clear and obvious mistake' doesn't apply to offsides, where the refs consider it to be objectively on or offside (despite the fact that the technology is not accurate enough to judge offside down to the nearest millimetre, as the refs are aware). Linesmen are told not to flag and to let Var decide in the event of a goal, so there is not really a decision to overturn).

Handball is reffed differently. Refs can judge a handball, then Var reviews it, but if it's not a clear and obvious error, the original decision is not overturned. There is a strong argument for treating such marginal handballs the same way as offsides: let the handball go and check it later if necessary.

I would argue the images we've seen of both the Werner offside and the Havertz handball were too blurry to make an accurate call. Having arbitrary T-shirt line in the middle of the bicep is just bonkers, anyway.

 

[Skinnedy]

The offsides is the one bothering me the most. I think the letter of the law has to change in the age of technology to represent the intent of the law.

The naked eye can't see strides or sleeves. feet move to fast to know whose foot is in front of the other at any given time. Get a guy reaching for a tackle, and he's objectively half a meter behind the other player, but his shoelace may hold the other player on... or off... it's ridiculous.

I think it should be like sprinters. When you want to draw an offsides line, draw use the sternum. I saw someone else say the waist... that's fine, that's the same idea... if you and I are in a race, we basically judge shoulder to shoulder who is winning, not whose feet or sleeve or hair is in front. 

That's the way the game has been officiated for 200 years. by looking at the Torso.

They keep trying to take the human element out of the game. They try to standardize it, but then they leave out common sense. I'm more pissed off about Werner's goal being disallowed than Havertz. 

I've said this for 20 years now with regards to replay and the "clear and obvious" error. Put a clock on it. You have 20 seconds to make a decision. If it takes longer than 20 seconds, it's not clear and obvious... play on... Replay was never intended to judge the small margins... just the big errors.

 

[timetowaste]

If I’m honest I don’t see VAR ever being compatible with football. You can sort out the offside rule or the handball rule but while VAR is about we’ll never be able to properly celebrate a goal without having it in our minds that it could get chalked off. I also follow my local team and it’s so good being able to watch a game and fully celebrate a goal, unfortunately that’s been taken away from us 

 

[Imran_CFC]

David Coote was giving Everton everything last night and I seriously doubt he would've given that Penalty had there not been VAR as he knew it was a stonewall pen.

His handball call was hugely dubious too

 

[Scott Harris]

Thursday night you have a goal ruled out because a players upper arm, considered a part of the body you can use to score a goal with, was deemed to be in an offside position. 

Monday a player has a goal ruled out for using the same part of his body to control the ball. 

So either the Werner goal was wrongly ruled out for offside or Havertz goal was wrongly ruled out for handball. 

But the problem is, no one knows for sure which decision is correct. 

I do, and neither of them were correct.

If we are going by the rules, then both goals should have stood. The angle they used to judge if Werner was offside was wrong, there was a much better angle they could have used that shows he was onside. Havertz goal should have stood because he played the ball with the part of the arm that is allowed, the same part of the arm Werner was given offside for.

One of the things I have always disliked about VAR is the clear and obvious part of it. I have hated it since the beginning, because for me, most replays show clearly if the ref got it right or wrong anyway. Everybody knows that Havertz goal was clean after looking at the replay, so what part about it wasn't clear and obvious? Also, the clear and obvious rule isn't used for offside, which seems odd seeing as the clear and obvious rule would work a lot better for offside decsions.

VAR is a system that really shouldn't be hard to implement. The problem is that we have refs that view the rules of the game very diffently, so we end up no consistency with the decision making. It's become such a mess that the rules of the game are being changed to help with VAR decisions, which seems absurd too me seeing as the VAR was supposed to be bought in to help the refs clear up anything they missed. VAR is actually a very simple system that Football has somehow found a way to mess up. With the way it is currently being used, they may as well bin it.