The Ref Stop

VAR in Portugal-Mexico (Confederations Cup)

The Ref Stop
Called it in real time so happy to be proved right. System worked well in this instance.

Didn't work so well later on when the 2nd Portugal goal was checked but no one knew why and we still don't. At the very least it'd be helpful to see the replays the VAR are looking at, better than that would be audio of the communications however I doubt that'll happen.
 
Not a great fan of this VAR system TBH, it will increase in its use to a point when football hasn't a reverse gear. All the emotion and joy of scoring and celebrating will be lost. Defending teams will expect every goal to be checked frame by frame looking for an minute error that they can jump on for you to disallow.
Football is a game played by humans, refereed by humans (and Padfoot) ;), we all make mistakes, we may as well sit in the stand and watch a monitor in 20 years time. Why are you really required to be running around!! We aren't US football, games last about 90 minutes. Bring on the first 3 hour game!!! :redcard:
 
Not a great fan of this VAR system TBH, it will increase in its use to a point when football hasn't a reverse gear. All the emotion and joy of scoring and celebrating will be lost. Defending teams will expect every goal to be checked frame by frame looking for an minute error that they can jump on for you to disallow.
Football is a game played by humans, refereed by humans (and Padfoot) ;), we may as well sit in the stand and watch a monitor in the next 20 years. Why are you really required to be running around!! We aren't US football, games last about 90 minutes. Bring on the first 3 hour game!!! :redcard:

Works pretty well in rugby.

They need to define how far back they can check an infringement for however as the ball can obviously be in play for several minutes before a goal is scored.
 
I'm not a massive fan of video technology, but of the systems tried this is by far the best one. There are however two big problems that need to be resolved ...

- No one knows why the referee is taking advice. The first one was obvious and I said real time that is offside, but the reason for the referral after Portugal's second goal was, and still is, a total mystery. Not so much of a problem as the goal was allowed, but had it been ruled out there would have been thousands of supporters in the ground and millions watching on TV without a clue as to why it had been disallowed. They really need to mike up the referee, perhaps using a system where his voice only gets broadcast to the crowd during the referral process.

- The referees aren't adding on the time lost for stoppages. Whilst it is much faster than the referee running over to watch a pitch side monitor, it still takes time and this needs to get added on.
 
Yes, i understand the rugby thing but in League they have natural breaks every few seconds with tackles, football can go on for minutes!!
I watched the end of the Warrington game where he checked ONLY a ball out of play at the dead ball line, however 5 seconds earlier a player caught a high ball and was tackled off the ground which is illegal...That would have reversed the call and set up a try scoring chance!!
Where is the consistency with that!!!
 
Yes, i understand the rugby thing but in League they have natural breaks every few seconds with tackles, football can go on for minutes!!
I watched the end of the Warrington game where he checked ONLY a ball out of play at the dead ball line, however 5 seconds earlier a player caught a high ball and was tackled off the ground which is illegal...That would have reversed the call and set up a try scoring chance!!
Where is the consistency with that!!!

The rugby comment was in reference to fans celebrating trys in full knowledge that the video ref may be used.
 
The (fairly) recent rugby World Cup was diminished as a spectacle by the loooooong waits for video ref to arrive at a decision.

To be fair to the egg chucking administrators, they recognised this and have taken steps to improve it, but VARs ar not a universal panacea.

It pains me a little to agree with him, but I do think that Sepp Blater was on to something when he said that refereeing errors and controversy aid the drama of the game and had people talking about it in the pubs and bars.

I think that other than we men in black, it is not in anyone's interest to have perfect refereeing, because otherwise Arsene, Jose and all their pampered players will have to start taking responsibility.

If it's swift, I.e. goal line technology, use it, but anything that is going to impart a significant delay will detract from the drama of the game.
 
The latest one is a lot more extreme. For Chile's goal, that then wasn't a goal, if the forward was offside then he was offside by a matter of millimetres. No really sure I'm OK with that level of scrutiny, there was no obvious error here (although the assistant wasn't in line it has to be said), and rather that was one of those decisions almost impossible to get right real time.
 
Not seen it, however he either is offside or he isn't, rather than fouls which can be subjective. You can't apply scales of 'offsideness' just because it wasn't clearly off.
 
It pains me a little to agree with him, but I do think that Sepp Blater was on to something when he said that refereeing errors and controversy aid the drama of the game and had people talking about it in the pubs and bars.
As if there won't be any discussion anymore with VAR... That's such a lousy argument, with all respect (nothing personal, it's an argument you hear everywhere). We now have replays too and the there's still enough controversy and debate. On this forum, we had a great exchange of opinions on Alexis' goal in the cup final, for example.

There will always be a margin of appreciation for the referee, so there will always be debate. What VAR will do (one may hope) is cut the cases that fall outside the referee's margin from the debate, the clear mistakes. We will have less talk about teams that "always" benefit from referee mistakes or about corrupt referees or federations, and that's a good thing.

"Less talk" is a poor reason anyway (and in Blatter's case it was probably an economic one: more talk, more money). Even if there's less talk in bars, so what? Football is in the first place about the players, not about the fans (sorry) or about the referees (sorry bis). It's about 22 people who play a game according to established laws and the best team according to these laws should win. All the rest is secondary. All that can help (within reasonable limits, etc) to get the "deserved" winner to actually win the game is a good thing.
 
As if there won't be any discussion anymore with VAR... That's such a lousy argument, with all respect (nothing personal, it's an argument you hear everywhere). We now have replays too and the there's still enough controversy and debate. On this forum, we had a great exchange of opinions on Alexis' goal in the cup final, for example.
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Personal or not, I don't think it is a lousy argument.

What is the point of VARs if not to eliminate errors.? If having VARs is still going to lead to discussion all you are doing is simply adding in another layer of imperfect decision making into process. In my opinion that's pointless.
 
I like the VAR system, it works well. However, they need to tell everyone what is going on better. A notice on the big screens and a flash up on the TV, just saying something like video review under-way. That way everyone is aware what is happening. The VARs in the Chile game were not well signalled at all, however I did call the offside before the VAR!
 
The latest one is a lot more extreme. For Chile's goal, that then wasn't a goal, if the forward was offside then he was offside by a matter of millimetres. No really sure I'm OK with that level of scrutiny, there was no obvious error here (although the assistant wasn't in line it has to be said), and rather that was one of those decisions almost impossible to get right real time.
AR looked good to me. But agreed that's hair's breadth and just leads to no trust of decisions.
 
Not a great fan of this VAR system TBH, it will increase in its use to a point when football hasn't a reverse gear. All the emotion and joy of scoring and celebrating will be lost. Defending teams will expect every goal to be checked frame by frame looking for an minute error that they can jump on for you to disallow.
Football is a game played by humans, refereed by humans (and Padfoot) ;), we all make mistakes, we may as well sit in the stand and watch a monitor in 20 years time. Why are you really required to be running around!! We aren't US football, games last about 90 minutes. Bring on the first 3 hour game!!! :redcard:
This is exactly my concern. While the decision to go to the VAR is in the referees hands, he'll always feel pressured to do so and eventually, to make a decision that allows the game to continue, knowing it's easier to go back and correct it than if he stops play incorrectly.

The VAR decision HAS to be taken out of the hands of the on-field referee - either by leaving it totally up to the VAR if he wants to stop and take a look at things, or by introducing some form of limited "challenge" system such as that seen in Cricket, Tennis, American Football etc.
 
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Football is a game played by humans, refereed by humans (and Padfoot) ;), we all make mistakes, we may as well sit in the stand and watch a monitor in 20 years time. Why are you really required to be running around!! We aren't US football, games last about 90 minutes. Bring on the first 3 hour game!!! :redcard:

Really forward thinking, mate. I have the fitness to commence a trial of this now ;)- do you think FIFA would fund VAR on local football in York. If so, i may come back to refereeing from observing. Refereeing would never be he same in York, and with the disclipinary reports being submitted - I may even be able to pay for the trial! :smoke::smoke:
 
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Works pretty well in rugby.

They need to define how far back they can check an infringement for however as the ball can obviously be in play for several minutes before a goal is scored.

Not so sure about that. I know a Rugby League fan who says it doesn't work well at all. Referees refer far too much to VAR who often comes to a decision that causes jus as much angst/confusion as those called by the man in the middle - and the games are taking a ridiculously long time to complete.
 
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