Despite the new season still being in its infancy, officials are already under pressure after a string of high-profile and contentious calls. Nottingham Forest are considering lodging an official complaint following their dramatic 3-2 defeat at Manchester United, with divisive calls on a red card and a penalty both going against the visitors.
Mike Walters Without wishing to sound like a broken record, my preferred solution for VAR remains unchanged: Bin it. If we must have this blight on a perfectly watchable sport, let's go down the cricket route: if managers and coaches on the sidelines feel aggrieved about goals, penalties, red cards or second bookings leading to a dismissal, they have the right of appeal - sounded by a klaxon from the technical area - to review contentious decisions.
Yes the officials and the PGMOL need to do better with it, but the technology isn’t the problem. Those using it need to be better, more transparent, they need to own their mistakes and explain why certain decisions are or aren’t made. Post-game interviews would help. Apologies to clubs may be well-intentioned but opens the door to constant apologies to clubs who will not benefit, while ramping up expectations of officials and fuelling nonsense conspiracy theorists.
Ben Husband Like it or not - and I don’t - VAR is here to stay. Pandora’s Box has now been opened and the possibility of closing it again is fanciful at best. Dan Marsh Communication. I think the majority of people were pleasantly surprised with the insights that were shared during Howard Webb's cameo appearance on Monday Night Football last season, and hearing the deliberations that go on behind the scenes would, at the very least, provide some much needed clarity over several big calls which have already divided opinion this season.
It would certainly be tricky to argue that the technology has not improved those sorts of decisions - despite the unnecessarily long delays that it takes to come to a decision. However, it then becomes slightly tricky when it comes to subjective decisions such as handball, fouls and the like. It takes away the most fundamental moment for fans, that moment when the ball hits the back of the net and there's a ripple of unbridled joy that rings around the stadium. Now there's a pause for fear that VAR could overturn the decision. Some players even hold back on celebrations for fear of looking silly celebrating something that never was. For that more than anything, VAR has changed the game for the worse.