Whatever ‘spirit of the game’ has ever meant for you up to now is entirely subjective. Don’t care for distilled beverages much myself. Seriously though I’m a VAR fan in principle and mostly in practice too. This was always going to happen to us big style at some point. A Goodison derby in October ain’t a bad time for it to happen
There is accountability. It’s just that the things they judge each other on are not what we judge them on.
I used to have a guy typically a couple of times a season, and as soon as we saw he had been announced we all just put our head in our hands. The game would be utterly awful to play in. He constantly called nit picky shit and just did not understand what he was seeing unfold, especially the cynical stuff. And worst of all was he just completely refused to communicate anything with us at all so we would have no idea why the nit picky stuff was being called. Invariably then someone would end up getting a yellow card for supposedly repeatedly doing the thing he’d called you on previously, but refused to explain what the problem was. YET, he was on the CONCAF A list and routinely got assigned to games in the CL, international qualifiers and gold cups. And he did so because the powers that be rated him highly for applying the rules consistently the way they thought they should be applied.
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No because a human still needs to make a decision as to when to activate VAR; and the inconsistencies lie there. Had VAR been running for the whole game and making decisions outside the referee, Pickford gets sent but we dont get a penalty. Problem is to have VAR run the whole time will undermine officials.
Another obvious problem occurs at the end of the process, as to how to interpret VAR data, such as is more common now, well you gained an unfair advantage there because your ponytail was closer to the goal. Oh right, what advantage was that then? Well, you didnt have to carry your ponytail as far as the defender; who has a crew cut.
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VAR IS running the entire time and watching the entire match. We just dont see evidence of it until it acts, or wont let the game restart until it has finished its review.
Alright then, but it isnt invoked all of the time. Which was the point. Perhaps its better to say it is monitoring the whole time.
VAR is a classic case of be careful what you wish for. It came in because fans were endlessly complaining about poor refereeing, biased refereeing, conspiracies etc. Pundits on Match of the Day and other programmes poring over decisions and analysing them to death, criticising human beings for being human and making mistakes. So VAR came in to make it all better and what do we have? Exactly the same situation we had before and the game has become ten times shitter.
I was quite happy watching refs and linos fuck it up occasionally knowing full well that one week we’d benefit and another week we wouldn’t. At least I was able to celebrate a goal and get some joy out of watching the game. Not any more. I just have to keep myself in check for at least a good 2 minutes after the ball has gone in the net just in case someone’s eyelash has strayed offside.
Related to the issues with VAR is the endless pissing about with the rules. There have been so many changes to the handball and, consequently, the offside rule that I have no idea what they are any more. And we are being sold a lie about technology and how accurate the decision making is. Now that you can score with the top of your arm, offside measurements are taken from the ‘T-shirt’ line. I can’t think of anything more arbitrary and subjective than someone deciding where that measurement starts. And it cost us a goal and a penalty on Saturday. Last season Mane would not have been offside for the goal and VVD would not have been offside for the penalty. They’ve just started taking measurements from a different point. How is this in any way fairer? What benefit does it bring? Football has totally lost the plot over its own rules. A total fucking farce.
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First, being a ref in a top league is a difficult job. Goes without saying really. To get where they are, requires a level of high skill. Football as a game has a lot of subjective calls. It’s in the nature of the game, as opposed to a game like tennis. As fans, we sometimes get our Liverpool glasses on. Sometimes fans are overly negative towards refs.
However, having said all that, valid criticism is normal, and very much needed. A bad performance needs to be called out, and there needs to be some accountability. This allows both the ref to improve, and allows for greater transparency in the game.
What made the officiating in the Everton game egregiously bad, was the combination of a crap performance from the man in the middle (came to the field to try to let the game flow, but ended up failing in his basic duty to facilitate the safety of the players, as his blindness to the Everton shenanigans encouraged the Bitters even more), allied to an (outrageously) bad performance from the VAR ref Coote.
I really don’t understand the thought process of all the match officials during the Prickford incident. Maybe there’s some psychological explanation, similar to the infamous Korean Air 801 disaster, where the culture impacted the safety. I would guess that in 99.99% of VAR refereed games this would have been an instant red, but a combination of ineptitude, bravado, culture, etc, all played a part.
Some would argue that one aspect of VAR is to inform the ref of any missed noteworthy incidents, and they would say that in this game, the VAR ref made the mistake, not the implementation of VAR. But this misses the point, as VAR is a COMBINATION of tech with humans. So of course, there is an obvious merit to look into the whole VAR operation flow to see if ineptitude like this can be limited.
One suggestion, as others have mentioned, is greater transparency. That’s why LFC have officially asked for the explanation. Unfortunately, the culture around PGMOL is to make sure they get their (hindsight) story straight, then stick to it. Just look at that Jon Moss official explanation from pre-VAR days tottenham game. More tech, same problems.
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If anyone wants to know how football fans from abroad see English refereeing, have a look at this article:
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Last season there was a goal that was ruled out in the Prem because of that season’s interpretation of handball relating to not being able to score if the scorer or the person who gave him the ball had even inadvertently touched the ball with their arm. It was from a contested header from a corner and the ball bounced off the attacking players upper arm where the meat of the shoulder muscle is. It fell to another attacker who put it in, and after 10 VAR reviews it was disallowed. Everyone lost their shit at the unfairness and stupidity of it.
Their fix was not to realize that interpretation gives no flexibility to avoid punishing plays the handball rule was never supposed to punish. Instead they create a new definition of where it can hit the arm so that particular goal would not have been disallowed, but now has a whole shit load of downstream consequences.
It’s madness, and it’s why whenever they consider a rule change it should not be done with this Frankenstein monster approach of adding bits and bobs onto already bad interpretations. It should be done from first principles. What do the players and fans expect to see given here. It should be this perspective that governs the writing of the interpretations EVERY TIME.
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It is not the Prem who have taken it upon themselves to amend the handball interpretation.
According to the BBC, the International Football Association Board (Ifab), tightened up the handball rule in time for this season, defining the boundary between the shoulder and the arm as the bottom of the armpit.
Fifa has taken over the implementation of VAR and ordered all leagues to apply strict interpretation of the rules in order to ensure consistency. This was mainly aimed at the Premier League as other leagues were already doing so. Sounds like the Premier League have no option but to abide by it.
Devilish thought crossed my mind that Oliver who is the best of a bad bunch pretty much never ‘ruins’ an evenish contest in the first 25 minutes. Everton in the shape of Pickford being fully aware of that did the professional thing and looked for ways to exploit his weakness.
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Do you really think he is that bright?
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He doesn’t have to be if he does what he’s told.
Carlo played to a very high level of Italian professional ‘pragmatism’ remember.
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True, this is a global change, but even then there are two points to appreciate. There is still variation in quite how strictly national associations will apply the IFAB interpretation, and we have already seen the Prem back away from the strictest possible interpretation of handball they started the season with. Second, IFAB is a largely Anglocentric organization in which the developments in and the needs of the Prem are often paramount.
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We need to lay off the triceps work in the gym lads…
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Along with my point that the lines for offside should be taken from easily ascertainable parts of the body, that they should be drawn thicker (as they are in the Netherlands), and that if they overlap the players should be deemed level (and therefore onside)…
In addition I’d mic up the referees. It would aid the viewers understand the process and the questions asked and provide a level of transparency without exposing referees to a cross examination after the game (which I don’t think would be helpful) but it would also drastically improve the behaviour of the players and how they treat the officials.
Further, I’d get rid of the rule about an action needing to be violent conduct, dangerous or serious foul play for it to be reviewable after the play was deemed ‘over’. That makes little sense to me. Under the rules as they are Pickford should have been given a red card, because it was dangerous or serious foul play. But had it simply been a late challenge without the use of excessive force (ie a yellow card offense) it would not have been punishable. That to me is wrong.
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I doubt this would ever happen, do you remember that idiot Moss and his linesman?
Smart: ‘All I need to know is, did Lovren touch the ball?’ Moss: ‘I don’t know.’ Smart: ‘If he’s not touched the ball, it is offside, so you’re chalking off the penalty. It has to be offside if Lovren has not touched the ball.’
Christian Eriksen: ‘He did touch the ball.’
Emre Can: ‘He didn’t touch the ball.’
Moss: ‘Just talk to me again.’
Smart: ‘You know what I’m asking; I need to clarify, has Lovren touched the ball? If he has, it’s a deliberate action and, therefore, it’s a penalty. If he has not, it is offside.’
Moss: ‘I have no idea whether Lovren touched the ball to be honest with you. Martin, have you got anything from TV? I’m giving the penalty
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Notice how neither player swore though. 
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I miss the good old days where we just had shite referees on the pitch fucking things up,now they have too many ways of fucking it up.
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I have seen far too many instances pre VAR, where Liverpool have been on the receiving end of a blatantly wrong ref/linesman decision, at the absolute worst possible time, against the absolute worst possible opponents. I love the “precision” of VAR for this exact reason.
As far as not celebrating a goal? This is the same as pre VAR, as there were plenty of instances where I am off my seat, cheering at a goal for 15 seconds, only for the commentators to say oh wait, a offsides flag!! It just happens more now, but at least I can now say that +95% of the decisions are immediately correct, the other 4% are borderline, and the other 1% are fuckups of a system that will never be 100% accurate.
Some of the other suggestions here I like, but will never support or be happy with the removal of VAR.
I would personally like a central location, e.g. PL HQ, where all the VAR decisions are decided), and maybe a three person committee with a majority needed for VAR subjective reasons, and the same panel for ALL games that week. It would be very unlikely that the panel would be needed at the same time across games played at the same time.
I like the idea of the Ref mic’ed for VAR related decisions.
The line drawing is a total, utter mess and causes more problems for viewers than they actually solve. I suggest a 3D type implementation, sort of like how baseball accurately show a +100 mph fast ball going through the strike zone. With UHD camera work, this is so possible that I am shocked it hasn’t already been implemented. The screen capture view of this has absolutely no reason not to be 100% Crystal clear. I can’t stand looking at fuzzy lines blurring into fuzzy images of the players. This imo is the biggest flaw of VAR and could easily be improved upon.
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