[Football] VAR April 2023 Poll - Fit for Purpose?

[Guinness Boy]

About time for another one of our irregular VAR for / against polls.

I've always been against this joyless mood hoover of a device. Yesterday, those limbs, Welbeck coming over to us on the slide, pure joy all round. And then......

But take that out of it for a moment. We were told by many on here (some of them even sensible) that we'd get "correct" decisions. We were told that it would rid us of top six bias. It has done no such thing.

All the time that decisions are being made by fallible human beings who carry unconscious bias around them like a bottle of water VAR will simply be something that delays games, removes exuberant celebrations and still gets all kinds of things wrong.

 

[Seagull27]

It's not fit for purpose, at all. But I don't think getting rid of it entirely is the answer.

 

[A1X]

It’s not VAR, it’s the individuals running it. Showing the action on multiple cameras is no use if the bloke in the seat is seemingly incompetent. Don’t use refs with “skin in the game”, use ex-pros or former refs.

 

[zefarelly]

VAR is potentially fit for purpose. The people manning it and officiating games are not.

 

[Guinness Boy]

It's not fit for purpose, at all. But I don't think getting rid of it entirely is the answer.

Why would you keep something that wasn't fit for purpose? How would you improve it so it was?

I'd keep goal line tech and bin everything else.

 

[West Upper Seagull]

I’ve always been in favour of VAR as long as it’s used in the right way. The fact that we have either incompetent or corrupt idiots using it makes it not fit for purpose.

 

[Springal]

Find me anywhere the volume of mistakes at the World Cup, euros or champions league and I’d say get rid

 

[Kinky Gerbil]

It’s not VAR, it’s the morons running it. Showing the action on multiple cameras is no use if the bloke in the seat is incompetent. Don’t use refs with “skin in the game”, use ex-pros or former refs.

Former pros will have skin in the game more than the current selection.

 

[Seagull27]

Why would you keep something that wasn't fit for purpose? How would you improve it so it was?

I'd keep goal line tech and bin everything else.

Because going back to no VAR still means a lot of bad decisions, including most of them yesterday.

There have been plenty of good suggestions - mic up the VAR referees decisions; change offside so the lines are thicker and stick with onfield decision if within a margin of error; don't use it for things that are just as subjective off the pitch as for the on pitch referee.

But clearly something needs to be done to ensure quality of var decisions - it's just not acceptable for them to make decisions that are incorrect, like Mitoma yesterday and Estupinan at Palace. Perhaps they need a panel of refs for each game or something.

 

[Postman Pat]

It hasnt achieved its goal of removing the 'clear and obvious' errors from the game, just introduced more errors, more confusion for fans and commentators, all at the cost of unnecessary delays.

Back to human errors with refs while they work out how to do this different with better laws, better training, more/different people on VAR, better processes and better communication with punters.

 

[banjo]

It worked ok during the WC

 

[BBassic]

The VAR officials shouldn't be former or current refs. Not should they be former players or anything like that.

They should be people trained solely to do that job which is to look at the available information and make decisions based on it.

Refs cannot be impartial and look at these things objectively. If they're on VAR and they've had a negative experience with a player or club on the field before it's going to influence their decision making. There's no way it can't.

Equally the refs on VAR will have relationships with the on field ref, again potentially influencing decisions.

So the people doing these jobs need to be as far removed from the game as possible.

Objective, impartial advisors.

 

[beorhthelm]

Why would you keep something that wasn't fit for purpose? How would you improve it so it was?

I'd keep goal line tech and bin everything else.

never been a fan of VAR, the tech isnt the problem, its the rules around it. guidance not followed or outright contradicted between events. goal line has no decisions or interpretation so works 99.9% (only issue i recall when the ref didnt turn on/check his buzzer). they could improve VAR by making officials accountable when they make wrong decisions using it, steering them to use it sparingly and correctly when there's and obvious error.

if they make a mistake not picking up on something (say an edge of a forearm skimmed - i dont think it did but as example), then the situation is the same as without VAR so they have not net impacted the game. that should be the test, has a VAR direction have a net positive on decision making.

 

[lasvegan]

Unconscious bias my arse…

 

[nickjhs]

For starters I think VAR should be like Tennis and Cricket, the team gets a finite number of rejected calls and no other interference from VAR. Secondly, if it is inconclusive the original decision should stand, and thirdly put the bloody VAR refs on notice take your time and get it right or get sacked

 

[John Byrnes Mullet]

Some type of demo needs to take place. On the pitch? 9 points lost!!!

 

[Nobby]

No. It never was. The Pgmol couldn’t run a p*ss up in a brewery so why they are trusted to run this is beyond belief.
VAR has so much potential for cock up and confusion and makes watching live games a complete waste of money.
My argument has always been VAR just doubles the chance of human error.

 

[Silverhatch]

GET RID OF IT.

Always hated its introduction. Clear & Obvious is an unworkable idea - it just is unless machine learnt-no-human-subjectivity can be applied. Saturday was unbelievable; incompetence on an industrial scale or just plain bent.

 

[Thunder Bolt]

There’s nothing wrong with the technology, as tennis, rugby and cricket show.
Those using it, however!

 

[Neville's Breakfast]

It never has been fit for purpose. It has magnified controversy surrounding decision making by referees as now virtually nobody accepts decisions made against them and moves on. It was supposed to remove cheating but has failed on that score as well. We are told that it is all the fault of the operators but no suggestions ever of who could replace them. The best refs in the country all need to be sacked apparently and replaced by….err no clue. If you as a fan want to watch the free flowing football a lot of us experienced when we first got into the game then it can only be found in the lower league VAR free zone.