VAR in the Premier League- where is it going wrong?
VAR The Video Assistant Referee, or VAR, is defined as a match official who reviews decisions made by the head referee with the use of video footage and a headset for communication. It is a tool that was introduced to football to help reduce the amount of errors made by referees during the course of the game. It helps the referees in making decisions on incidents they could’ve missed seeing, or incidents they may have made the wrong decision on due to human error.
As of late VAR has been causing a lot of controversy, especially in the Premier League. Before we go any further, let’s take a look at the origins of VAR and its implementation and reception in competitions other than the Premier League.
After various discussions and trials across different leagues from different countries, the A-league of Australia was the first professional top flight league to implement VAR, soon followed by various leagues and competitions, such as La Liga (Spain) and Ligue 1 (France). Internationally VAR was used in friendlies initially, and was later even used in the World Cup in 2018. VAR was also introduced in UEFA competitions from the 2018/19 season.
The fans were initially skeptical of the introduction of VAR in the World Cup, as are most fans whenever some new initiative is introduced in the footballing world- let’s be honest, who likes change?; why fix what’s not broken- but after it’s implementation, the general reception among fans was good, and VAR was praised for the job it was doing in the tournament. Most leagues were met with a similar reaction on the introduction of VAR. The Premier League was on of the last domestic leagues to implement VAR. It was also the one to get the most negative reaction among the fans. Why did other leagues accept VAR so readily, while the Premier League fans didn’t? To answer this question, first let’s take a look at what other leagues did RIGHT.
WORLD CUP
This is how VAR was managed in The 2018 World Cup in Russia: VAR would only intervene on offside calls; clear and obvious errors made by the on pitch referee in cases such as penalties, direct red cards, et cetera; offside decisions; and foul play during the build-up of a goal. The off-pitch and away from direct action referees sitting in a booth would point out an action on the pitch they believed the on-pitch referee had missed and would inform him through his ear-piece. From here the referee would have 3 choices: Accept what the VAR officials had to say, go to the pitch-side monitor and take a look at the play himself and then make a decision based on the footage he has seen, or disregard the advice given to him by the VAR referees.
Why did this work so well? Well in this system, the decision ultimately still lied with the on-pitch referee, without many changes in the rules. The referee could review the play he may have missed, or an error in judgement he may have made, and then come to a decision- by himself, with the aid of off-pitch referees and replays. This was good because in such a setup the referee’s decision was the one that mattered, and it helped the referee come to a more informed decision, and most of the times, the fans came out of watching a game happy with the decisions that were made.
CHAMPIONS LEAGUE
VAR was introduced in the knockout stages of the Champions League in the 2018/19 season, partly owing to its success in the 2018 world cup, which was held a few months prior. Even here when it was introduced, VAR wasn’t short of any controversy. One of its first uses came in the Round of 16 fixture between Real Madrid and Ajax. Ajax, the clear underdogs of the game (and the competition) had managed to score a goal which was later disallowed for what seemed like the softest of infringements, if you could call it one, in the build-up of the goal. Ajax did eventually manage to beat Madrid in the second leg of the tie, and went on to have one of the most memorable campaigns in the history of the Champions League, but this could’ve been a completely different story had Ajax been crushed mentally because of losing what was a well worked goal.
Further, in the quarter final tie between Tottenham Hotspur (or Spurs) and English rival Manchester City, perhaps one of the most controversial moments in the brief history of VAR happened. Tottenham had a narrow 1 goal lead from the first leg at home to build upon against City. The second leg proved to be quite the spectacle. Within the first 10 minutes 4 goals had been scored- 2 for each team- the fastest time ever to reach that number. Within the first 21 minutes, 5 goals had been scored- another record- with City grabbing a 3rd goal to lead the game 3–2 (3–3 on aggregate, but still trailing on the away goals rule). Now, through a 60th minute Aguero strike, Manchester led the tie for the first time. This goal was cancelled out by a 73rd minute equalizer from Fernando Llorente. This is the point where VAR came into action in the game for the first time. Some Manchester City players were appealing that Llorente had hit the ball with his hand to help it on its way in. After a VAR check, which was inconclusive, the referee went to the pitch-side monitor to check for himself. After seeing seeing multiple replays from various angles, the referee deemed the goal to be fair, and thus the goal stood and Tottenham led once again on away goals. This remained the case until the dying minutes of stoppage time. Now here is where the real controversy begins. A misplaced pass from a Spurs player found its way to Aguero who moved it onto Raheem Sterling who was waiting in the box, and who scored what would’ve been the winning goal in spectacular fashion. City players and fans go mad in celebrations, thinking they’ve surely progressed to the semi finals. Fairytale ending? Not quite, not for City fans at least. A quick VAR check was conducted wherein Aguero was deemed to be in an offside position and thus the goal was disallowed. This decision, although controversial, was ultimately a fair one, and helped Tottenham reach their first Champions League semi final in history. It also showed that even though VAR might be heartbreaking for some fans, it helped keep the game fair as it made the right decision on what would’ve been the wrong call had the goal stood.
This game was the perfect example of controversial is not equal to bad. Although Manchester City fans came out of the game feeling hard-done, most neutrals would agree it was the right call.
So, now that we’ve seen what the other competitions have done right, let’s take a look at where the Premier League has gone wrong.
Well, for starters when VAR was originally introduced to the Premier League (or PL, for short), it was stated that VAR would only intervene in cases where the on-pitch referees had made a clear and obvious error, in order to keep the game flowing smoothly as far as possible. As the season progressed, it became more and more evident that this wasn’t the case. VAR was intervening and disallowing goals for the most minute infringements. Goals were being disallowed because of the softest of fouls that occurred some time earlier during the build-up of the goal.
As if this wasn’t enough, oftentimes VAR was making the wrong decisions. Be it in ruling (or not ruling) a foul in the build-up of a goal, or making offside calls, VAR officials still made errors. For instance, earlier this season in a match between Tottenham and Brighton, a Tottenham player was clearly fouled in the build up of a Brighton goal. After a VAR check, even after the on-pitch referee saw the pitch-side monitor, the goal stood. Although Tottenham went on to win the game anyways, this could’ve, and has before, affected the fair outcome of the game.
Further, for offside calls, VAR officials often draw lines to see the line held by the defender, and where the attacker is in relation to the line drawn. Various problems arise here. Firstly, many times the drawn are at weird angles and are of various thickness. This leads to players who may have been onside being judged as offside, and their goals wrongfully disallowed. Secondly, players are often judged to be offside by a fraction of a finger or a toe. This, according to me, goes against the spirit of the game. Besides, the videos are often pixellated and hard to see where the line begins and where the player’s body is. This problem leads into my last shortcoming. It is nearly impossible for VAR to determine the exact moment the ball left a player’s foot, so making such tight calls for offside by VAR is unfair to the players.
Coming onto another problem: handballs. The rules for what is a handball and what isn’t, are vastly inconsistent. With differing rules for what is a handball for defenders differing to the ones for attackers, this often leads to referees and fans being confused at a particular decision. This leads to a strengthening of the fans’ already poor opinions about VAR. Further, a lot of handball calls have been unfair on defenders and attackers alike. In many cases, a ball is shot onto a defenders arm, and even if the shot is too fast for the defender to move his arm in time, or if the defender had no other place to move his arm to, the handball decision was given against the defender. Goals have also been disallowed for attacking teams in such circumstances, which is ultimately sucking the joy out of the beautiful game we all know and love.
Lastly, I come to the problem of how VAR rules on potential red card situations. Picture this: you kick the ball with an opposition player close to you. As you kick the ball, you get a little bit of the player close to you on the follow through. You think nothing much of it, as it’s part of the game, until a VAR check is completed and rules that what you did was foul play and you are sent off with a direct red card. Well, this is exactly what happened recently in a London derby between West Ham and Chelsea. A West Ham player was sent off after a VAR check in this exact situation during the last 10 minutes of the game, thus killing any hope they had of coming back from a goal down.
In conclusion, I personally believe VAR, when implemented correctly does help improve the game. So, while I disagree with the way VAR has been introduced in the Premier League, I firmly believe that with a revision of the rules that VAR follows, it will help improve officiating here as well. The change in rules must include leniency in red card calls and offsides. Especially close offside calls, in my opinion, should be reviewed in a simple frame by frame manner rather than with the help of a flurry of lines that confuses fans and players alike. Further, rules, especially handball rules, should be made to be more consistent and fair on players. If the league works on some of these aspects, a lot less fans would be complaining about VAR, and a lot less teams would unjustly drop points.
