Whilst the application of VAR in its current form has failed to convince the masses, is the system itself the issue?
Having an advanced video system that allows the game to reach fairer and more consistent outcomes should have brought clarity and vindication to fans and players that have been hard done by in the past.
However, the place that football’s community finds itself in is looking for answers. And the opinion for a lot of fans is fix it or get rid of it.
When I sat down with the chief football writer for The Times, Henry Winter, I questioned him on why in this country VAR has failed to prove its worth, just yet.
“It has to be used for the clear and obvious, because the joy of English football is momentum is the great flow,” said Winter.
“If it’s clear and obvious, you should be able to clear it up within thirty seconds.”
Winter’s perspective like many is not the argument of removing VAR all together but instead fixing the lack of communication.
“I think people understand the importance of VAR, the need in the world which is so highly technical,” he added.
“It was bizarre of perverse that the person actually making the decision, i.e., the person in the middle of the pitch, didn’t have access to a reply.
“I think it’s needed, it just has to be used more swiftly, more judiciously and with better communication to the players and the fans.”
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Winters view is very much from a fan’s perspective. He, like many, is feeling confused and bewildered as to how they have reached a decision.
“At the moment you’re left in an exam room, without having done any revision and you’re trying to work out what on earth’s going on,” Winter said.
The solution to the problem is not one that everyone perhaps has the answer for but Winter certainly feels as if certain actions would lead to better appeasement of fans within the stadium.
“They should be mic’d up, I mean the broadcasters can apparently hear them.
“I think it would add to the experience if you could hear them.”
But ultimately without having a referee that can soundly and correctly use what is at his disposal the issue will never be fixed.
The quality of referees in this country is something that is consistently called into question. Rarely do we see our officials at major international tournaments.
Only two this summer, Anthony Taylor and Michael Oliver, made the cut for Euro 2020. Not a single one went to the 2018 World Cup.
“Ultimately in the long term we have to develop referees in this country,” he remarked.
“It’s a far broader thing than one guy getting the lines wrong or taking too long in a room at Stockley Park.”
VAR is not going away and nor should it. But its inaccuracy and the frustration it causes is far too regular in order to justify including it within the makeup of football.
Something will need to change somewhere in the production line, but where that is will have to be seen.
