VAR – By the Barest of Margins
Not a football analysis goes past in the premier league without the topic of VAR coming up.
In this post, I dissect just how the use of VAR has gone from game-changing to game-killing in less than two years.
VAR at the World Cup
Video assisted replays didn’t seem so bad at the men’s World Cup in 2018, did they?
The consensus was positive.
Overall the right decisions were made.
The 2018/19 season saw controversy with last minute VAR decisions in the latter stages of the Champions league. Both Manchester United and Spurs were given a helping hand when they looked beaten.
During the women’s World Cup, the new application of millimetre precision to offside saw goals begin to be disallowed, by the “barest of margins” (Ian Smith, 2019).
People began to feel slightly uncomfortable with the new technology.
Like when you get a new neighbour - and they put a 5m extension on the back of their house.
Technically they’ve done nothing wrong but it doesn’t sit right.
A big change was happening but you didn’t feel like you had any say. Things had developed in a direction you hadn’t expected.
VAR in the Premier League
The decision to introduce VAR to the Premier League in 2019/20 was magnanimously voted in by all of the clubs in November 2018.
Years of declining referee performances and increased scrutiny would be solved by the introduction of VAR.
Goal line technology had been a clear success — and no one could argue with the mm accuracy of the system and players and fans alike accepted its jurisdiction.
Ex-pros and the media were engaged in a charm offensive by Mike Riley and the Premier Game Match Officials Limited (PGMOL).
Stockley Park, the home of VAR, seemed to give the system credibility much like Bletchley Park it was here to crack the enigma of poor officiating.
“VAR will be used only for “clear and obvious errors” or “serious missed incidents” in four match-changing situations: goals; penalty decisions; direct red-card incidents; and mistaken identity.”
“But factual decisions such as offsides, and the issue of whether a player is inside or outside the penalty area, are not subject to the “clear and obvious” test.
If the VAR sees an error has been made in such a situation they will intervene, regardless of how marginal the decision is.” PGMOL, 2019.
This was the mission statement.
In the final paragraph, we received a forewarning about what we were waking into. The PGMOL expected that we would start seeing decisions being made on marginal judgments and we should prepare ourselves for it.
Every club will have its own take on how it has been affected by VAR.
Give Me Sport produces a weekly table of results if VAR wasn’t used.
Who’s been impacted by VAR?
Brighton have been the biggest beneficiaries — 6 points better off.
Wolves the worst — 5 points down on where they may have been.
This is a very arbitrary assessment of the decisions. Any decision whether right or wrong can swing momentum in a league of very fine margins.
One of the earliest marginal decisions happened at the King Power as Spurs went what they thought was 2–0 up through Serge Aurier before being brought back for offside against Son.
Within minutes, Leicester were level and went on to win a game they had almost been out of.
This game was an excellent example of the swing these decisions can create in matches. A game was turned on its head and the momentum switched by VAR, a team that was out of the game suddenly had a second chance.
This decision was the first that brought out the reactions of players and fans that when presented with what appeared to be a correct decision rejected the outcome.
“This isn’t football” was the retort.
Clear and obvious had become a farce.
The VAR was under instruction to where possible not re-referee games. 6 decisions were overturned out of 227 reviewed in the early weeks.
The threshold for the clear and obvious bar had been set so high that it would have taken an Olympic pole vaulter to clear it.
There was such a vehement dedication to letting the on field referee be the final arbiter incorrect decisions were left that way.
The PGMOL realised this stance was helping no one and — following the international break — the VAR began to intervene with equally bemusing decisions.
A non-penalty for Man United at Norwich being one of the highlights of the new approach.
Fans' biggest complaints continue to return to the application of the offside rule.
Offside was introduced to stop attackers gaining an unfair advantage.
Decisions against Sterling, Son, Pukki, Neto, and Wesley, were goals wiped off due to marginal offsides.
Fans hadn’t signed up for this.
VAR was meant to bring more goals and better decisions. This was the opposite.
The Flaws in the VAR System
I see three main flaws with VAR and its application to offside.
1- Camera Angles
The images are not taken perpendicular to the final man so the application of the points closest to the goal is an estimate due to perspective distortion.
2- Margin for Error
Mo margin for error is built into the system to take into account the distance travelled by players between frames. This can be anything from 0 if still to nearly 40cm at players' top speeds.
3- Human error
With the above, it is still just a referee determining when the ball was kicked and where the furthest point is. As we know, they can be prone to mistakes.
The original verbatim rule for offside just isn’t fit for purpose anymore. We need a modern twist on its application. When it was just a man with a flag, you had to be clearly ahead to draw his attention, or not sometimes.
Build in a margin of error- say 40 cm either side- and judge more attackers onside.
Even when it is only fractionally offside, it should be clear the player is ahead of the last man and not feel as unjust as the current system.
Conclusion
Offside needs its emphasis flipped to favour the attacker- and go back to doing what it was intended to do- and not just cross off perfectly good goals.
I believe VAR will be a success but what this initial foray into its world has shown us is that sometimes it’s the rules and how we interpret them that’s the issue and not (always) the technology.
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