VAR has become the sworn enemy of Premier League fans everywhere as games become delayed and emotions muted while referees and their virtual assistant work out what is and isn’t allowed. Goal celebrations are interrupted and sometimes ruined by the stoppage which can sometimes take minutes to reach a conclusion. It also doesn’t help that the Laws of the game in England are not necessarily the same as those in European competition, leading to utter confusion amongst fans.
Despite the negativity VAR has received, including being nominated for ‘Dick of the Year’ on British TV show ‘The Last Leg’ and #VARout trending on twitter, the conclusions it is coming to are technically right. For instance, the hot take from Sunday’s games was the disallowed goal by Wolves in their loss to leaders Liverpool. After Sadio Mane’s goal was rightfully given for Liverpool by VAR, Neto had his equalizer ruled out for offside in the build up. Wolves midfielder Jonny was judged to have his pinky toe offside as he raced onto the ball and squared for the former Lazio striker to score. The decision took nearly three minutes to make and needed the help of the dreaded lines it was that close. Ultimately the right decision was made and here is why.
The law states that a player is in an offside position if any of their body parts, except the hands and arms, are in the opponents’ half of the pitch, and closer to the opponents’ goal line than both the ball and the second-last opponent (the last opponent is usually, but not necessarily, the goalkeeper). Being in an offside position is not an offence in itself, but a player so positioned when the ball is played by a teammate can be judged guilty of an offside offence if they become “involved in active play”, “interfere with an opponent”, or “gain an advantage” by being in that position.
And that is why it is not VAR that is broken but rather the laws themselves which need fixing. The Virtual Assistant Referee is just doing their job abiding by the rulebook and providing the information to the official on the pitch.
Graeme Souness recommended a rule change after the game on Sky Sports stating that if any part of the player is in line with the last defender it should be deemed onside. This would lead to more goals which ultimately is what everyone pays to see. However it still wouldn’t fix the fine line these VAR’s are walking, it would just change where the line starts.
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For me, every goal should be checked to the last three passes in the build up. If something is not clear and evident just by looking at the screen (ie get rid of drawing lines) the advantage should goes to the attacker, but what happens then when the fourth pass was a missed opportunity by the ref? You will always have debates and controversy, it’s what makes the game great, but the stop start nature of the games recently are becoming more reminiscent of NFL games and nobody wants that, especially not the English.
