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This happened tonight, it's quite unbelievable.......
"A penalty was awarded after players had already left the pitch for half-time in a Bundesliga match between relegation rivals Mainz and Freiburg. Referee Guido Winkmann called both sides back from the dressing room after consulting the video assistant referee (VAR) system and penalising Freiburg for handball. Mainz midfielder Pablo de Blasis scored the penalty to put the hosts 1-0 up."
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I have to say I'm delighted by that. I'm sure that VAR will be useful in the future as technology advances, but at the moment it is little more than a farce. Football is a fast-paced game, and so far VAR is at the Betamax stage. We seem to have goal line technology sorted, so leave it at that. Thank f*ck I'll probably be long gone before it reaches our level.Originally Posted by upthemaggies
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Without seeing the incident, it seems odd that the players were allowed to leave the pitch before the review had been completed.
There's no doubt there are some teething troubles with VAR, but watching Major League Soccer in particular I've seen some good examples where it has worked in getting the decision right, with minimal disruption to the game.
Football fans tend to be traditionalists anyway, and there will continue to be a degree of resistance to a development as significant as this, but the genie is out of the bottle and it won't be going back in. The only question is how long it will take to fine tune the way it is used, and how quickly the rollout will occur.
As I've said in previous discussions, football is no longer "just a game", it's a multi-billion pound industry, and it just isn't good enough anymore to say mistakes will even themselves out over the course of a season, which is nonsense anyway. It matters that the right decisions are made as often as possible, and in today's highly technological world, there will continue to be more developments of this type, so we had better get used to it.
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A handball happened, ref didn't see it and blew for half-time. Player's of course headed to the changing rooms, but the ref had been told to take a look at the incident. No big deal.
The incident we should be talking about from that match is the protest from the fans about having to play matches on a Monday. German football fans have got it good, low ticket prices, good kick off times and days and they are determined to keep it that way.
What would happen to a English club if the fans protested against the FA during the match?
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What if this happens at full-time? People who pay good money to watch a full game could miss a winning goal as they've left the stadium. It would also be dangerous in those circumstances with lots of people on gangways turning back to see what's happening.
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I agree with Elite to a point, I am not a fan of var but it is here to stay. There are and will be teething problems the same with any new development or practise but in a few years time it probably be part and parcel of the game.
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The weird thing is, there seems to be a correlation between attitudes to VAR and people's political views. Those on the right seem to think we just have to accept whatever people in authority tell us, even if it's clearly a bad thing, whilst the lefties are more likely to question the benefits.
On that basis, I'm out, the main point being yes, football is a big business now, but it's an entertainment business. Dragging players back from the dressing room is not a spectacle the paying public want to see. It's borderline OCD to do that just to get a decision right. I suppose the conversion of our chairman from pro to anti VAR illustrates the point. As a successful businessman, he knows customers don't want this.
What we do want, however, is a return of bog rolls thrown on the pitch, even if it was done as a protest. Probably our younger viewers won't even remember this practice.
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VAR is OK if you are a neutral sitting at home watching the farce play out on your TV screen.
I would be less than impressed coming back to my seat for the second half hearing that Notts conceded a penalty in the half-time interval and were in fact 1-0 down.
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It works very well in cricket as there is a natural pause between each ball so it's easy to hang on 30 seconds while the footage is reviewed and a decision made. When it's a very borderline decision it goes to 'Umpire's call' (the decision the umpire made at the time). While it's not perfect, I'd say it gets 98% of decisions right with no negative impact on the game. Football is completely different. Take this German game as an example - if the ball had gone straight up the other end and Freiburg had scored a legitimate goal the ref would blow his half time whistle with them leading 1-0. He then consults the VAR man and gives a penalty to Mainz. Would that make it 1-1? Would the Freiburg goal be chalked off so the team that had walked off leading 1-0 at half time walk off a minute later 1-0 down?
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I understand that VAR will come eventually but at the moment the teething problems are both numerous and serious. Yet FIFA are insisting on using it in the forthcoming World Cup.... barmy!
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