Quote Originally Posted by MadAmster View Post
Ah, but, "clear and obvious" is the FIFA instruction as to how VAR should be used. It was Sky and the EPL who first spent the millions on the technology to be able to judge to the millimetre. In the beginning other National FAs couldn't afford it. As it became cheaper they followed. I am most adamant in my opinion that the Coventry decision was not a "clear and obvious error by the ref's assistant". IMO, he got it right. Too close to call with the human eye so the "benefit of any doubt" went to the attacker, and, almost too close to call taking 4 minutes of close scrutiny using some very expensive hard- and soft-ware. Ergo, it was not a clear and obvious error.
I completely agree with you. The question though remains…what do we, as fans, actually want?
In this case the decision arrived at by VAR was correct…the Coventry player was, by the most minuscule of margins, offside, but, by definition, there can be no ‘clear and obvious’ error where such tiny margins are concerned.

Had the context of the decision been less emotive and the situation/consequence more dispassionate then I suspect little would have been said but we do, imo, have to be clear about what we want and expect from VAR.

We have introduced technology that allows us to make the correct judgement call for the most difficult of decisions. That’s why we have VAR, but then when it results in an unpopular and unromantic outcome it seems we still moan. Can’t have it both ways.