UnbeliVARble

Football. You either love it or you hate it. It’s a game of goals, passion, tackles, celebrations and rivalries but is the introduction of VAR slowly turning the beautiful game into long waits and magnificent goals ruled out by clueless, robotic referees who have never kicked a football before?

Rival football fans can rarely ever agree on anything but the majority of fans in the UK believe VAR has made football worse. Two thirds to be precise. Wherever, Whenever and However you watch football it’s an amazing feeling but when 2,100 fans are polled and 44% bluntly say VAR has ruined football it really does make you think if football was better off before its introduction. Eventually, fans were able to watch back decisions on TV and on the big screen inside the stadiums which was a huge step forward to improving how it’s used. It’s a shame it took over a year for that to be introduced because by then pretty much every supporter from Newcastle down to Brighton was fed up with VAR. When it was first introduced to the Premier League a statement was released which said, ‘VAR will only be used to overturn clear and obvious errors’, so when the average check time is close to a minute and a half and the longest wait so far being three minutes and thirty six seconds does that completely contradict what VAR was brought in to do.

I also think it’s interesting to look at different demographics (specifically age) with debates in football because it shows the ever increasing gap between certain age groups of fans. The first age bracket to look at is 18-34 (only a few years above my bracket) which indicates a high percentage of fans in favor of VAR. In fact 36% of fans aged 18-34 believe VAR has improved football, once again showing the rapidly increasing era of technology beginning to take over and turn fans robotic. Interestingly, only 29% of fans aged 55+ think VAR has improved football compared to 59% who say it has made football worse. Has the golden age of football ended? Looking at these stats it shows the older generation are highly against VAR but that could be for multiple reasons. In my opinion it’s because they are opposed to change and would rather stick with the game they know and love. For me, I’m slightly leaning towards the older fans’ views but for a different reason that many people are ignorant to. Yes, VAR does get the correct decision most of the time which is brilliant but it takes an age to get to that decision which snatches away the passion when a team scores a goal and the limbs in the crowed which send a tingle down your spine. Also poor decisions even out over the season so the game still remains fair. Another reason I’m against VAR is because it’s still controlled by the same stubborn and clueless referees so the decisions will remain a matter of opinion and unfortunately not fact. Ultimately, with so much help they are still incompetent and make horrific decisions. I will talk about a few of these decisions later in the article.

Big six bias drives me crazy and a fair few people believe it’s a myth but with these surprising yet unsurprising stats I’m sure I can convince you it is a real thing. The big six consist of Arsenal, Manchester City, Manchester United, Liverpool, Tottenham and Chelsea. During the 2021/22 season five out of these six teams had a positive net VAR decision over turns with Liverpool having the highest in the league with +4. Only Manchester United had a negative number of over turns (-2). Taking these numbers into consideration it comes as no surprise to me that over 30% of all these previously mentioned teams’ fans are in favor of VAR. Approximately, 44% of Arsenal fans believe VAR has improved football and with them now being top of the league I can almost guarantee that number has risen. A few years ago Leicester City won the Premier League (before the introduction of VAR) after having a truly inspiring season but just a few months ago an ex referee can out and said, ‘The Premier League don’t want another Leicester because they believe it ruins the integrity of the league.’ And if that doesn’t shock you enough he goes on to say, ‘To prevent this happening again we were told to make decisions in favor of the bigger teams.’ This eye opening quote backs up my point that with or without the decisions are still being made by the same referees who are being paid by the Premier League so they have to do what they’re told. This now brings up two new questions… Has VAR further highlighted the corruption in the league? Was VAR brought in to make sure the so called big six stay dominant?

Honestly, I have a small note book next to me with a few controversial VAR decisions written in it and it scares me at how outrageous these disallowed goals, penalties and fouls are. The worst part is these are only a select few from years and years of disaster. I’m going to set the scene for you with this first decision. Tottenham are playing Chelsea in a huge game with Chelsea currently winning 2-1. Spurs are about to take a corner when Romero (a Spurs defender) pulls the hair of Chelsea’s Cucurella, VAR checks what has happened and no foul is given despite the clear pull on the Spaniard. Unfairly, Spurs score from the following corner leading to the game finishing 2-2. Three points robbed from Chelsea. Another puzzling decision came in a game between Crystal Palace and Newcastle that ended 0-0. Newcastle cross the ball into the box and Joe Willock is blatantly shoved into the Palace goalkeeper by Mitchell who the ball then hits and ends up in the net. An own goal that has no chance of being disallowed… . Until VAR decides that despite being shoved into the Palace goalkeeper, Willock has actually committed a foul. Goal disallowed. Two ludicrous decisions that stole three valuable points from two teams who deserved to win.

In conclusion, I believe that although VAR does mostly get to the correct decisions, football was and still is better off without it because it has taken away the passion of the game and poor decisions are still being made despite all the help given to the highly criticized referees. Stop ruining the beautiful game. Even worse is we haven’t even had the debate about consistency of decisions.