VAR debate ignited again as match changing decisions start to change the game itself

By Andrew Warshaw

January 29 – Far too long delays, questionable judgements, wrong decisions, contrasting opinions. The global debate over whether to introduce video technology – which FIFA president Gianni Infantino is determined to do before the World Cup – shows no sign of abating following yet more controversy at the weekend.

Hardly a week goes by without VAR being either criticised or praised in equal measure and nowhere did the former kick into play more than in Italy where the system is being trialled in league games this season.

Lazio coach Simone Inzaghi was stunned that VAR Officials missed a clear handball goal by Patrick Cutrone’s handball goal in Milan’s 2-1 win.

”I would like to lose for once without VAR in the middle,“ he fumed. ”It’s incredible. A free kick which was diverted with the use of the arm; it’s unbelievable.”

Inzaghi admitted he did not spot the handball himself until seeing the television images but the video assistant referee was in place entirely to spot such incidents.

“It’s a serious mistake. It’s gone wrong for the umpteenth time… The images speak for themselves.”

Football’s law-making body the International FA Board is expected to rule in early March whether to authorise the use of VAR on a permanent basis.

In the FA Cup in England, fans of both Liverpool and West Brom, who knocked out Jurgen Klopp’s team, were left bemused as the VAR made no fewer than  three game-changing  interventions.

On the advice of VAR, referee Craig Pawson correctly disallowed a West Brom goal, correctly awarded a Liverpool penalty when Mohamed Salah was fouled and correctly judged that the visitors’ third goal should stand despite offside appeals.

The problem this time was not the decisions per se but how long it took for them to be made. As usual, with no big screens in the stadium as there are with, say, cricket, fans were left in the dark as to what was going on when millions of others watching live television found out first.

“There’s no communication from the referee to us,” bemoaned West Brom manager Alan Pardew. “I haven’t got the answers but as a football man on the sidelines I wasn’t comfortable. It was kind of mysterious at times.”

Many sceptics share Pardew’s view that long time delays before VAR decisions are made can impact directly on players’ fitness.

“It was four or five minutes, the Salah decision. You’re going from high tempo work rate to nothing. We had a hamstring just after that.”

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