Will you miss VAR this season?

[Sproggy]

No. It's a cr*p system, implemented badly, by idiots.

[FeedTheArf]

The biggest negative for me has been the hesitancy around the ground just to celebrate a goal. In the back of your mind you’re always expecting a goal to be checked for one thing or another. That alone, I’ll be glad to see the back of. Though it wouldn’t surprise me if it gets introduced in the Championship before long. It was already tested in the play off final wasn’t it?

[fatboy47]

The biggest negative for me has been the hesitancy around the ground just to celebrate a goal. In the back of your mind you’re always expecting a goal to be checked for one thing or another. That alone, I’ll be glad to see the back of. Though it wouldn’t surprise me if it gets introduced in the Championship before long. It was already tested in the play off final wasn’t it?

If it's making money for someone then it'll be in the Championship before too long.

[xxmunkyennuixx]

Interesting - I’ve never watched a second of rugby league and haven’t watched rugby union for years bar the World Cup final or odd Lions game. I didn’t know they use it differently.

One thing I would say is video referees in rugby union seem to do a pretty good job and nobody grumbles?

VAR in football will work. But like all technology it’s only as good as the human using it and the current batch of referees are pretty shocking bar one or two.

Recent game against Australia featured two foward passes that were ignored. They just did not make a big deal of it in the analysis. There tends to be some chatter about interpretation around the break down and scrum. It really helps that they are broadcast and you can hear the thought process. Most of them portray themselves well and it makes a marginal decision more understandable.

Was broadly in favour of VAR. I don't think it is being utilised properly because officiating standards are incredibly poor. The Spurs/Villa late on in the season stung a bit. Spurs felt like they found a decision to give against us. One that we would never get. There was a handball by Spurs player in the same game and it wasn't even checked. This is compounded by the context of Vyds getting punched by Krul. They were pretty key moments for us. However, with a bit more perspective and time we were abject last season so we deserved to go down regardless.

[dsr]

Recent game against Australia featured two foward passes that were ignored. They just did not make a big deal of it in the analysis. There tends to be some chatter about interpretation around the break down and scrum. It really helps that they are broadcast and you can hear the thought process. Most of them portray themselves well and it makes a marginal decision more understandable.

Was broadly in favour of VAR. I don't think it is being utilised properly because officiating standards are incredibly poor. The Spurs/Villa late on in the season stung a bit. Spurs felt like they found a decision to give against us. One that we would never get. There was a handball by Spurs player in the same game and it wasn't even checked. This is compounded by the context of Vyds getting punched by Krul. They were pretty key moments for us. However, with a bit more perspective and time we were abject last season so we deserved to go down regardless.

I don't know about union, but in rugby league forward passes can't be checked by VAR full stop. This is because they are subjective (momentum rule, essentially).

[NickBFC]

Will I miss it? Not a cat in hell's in chance. Absolutely ruined my enjoyment of football at times.

[hetheclaret]

Recent game against Australia featured two foward passes that were ignored. They just did not make a big deal of it in the analysis. There tends to be some chatter about interpretation around the break down and scrum. It really helps that they are broadcast and you can hear the thought process. Most of them portray themselves well and it makes a marginal decision more understandable.

Was broadly in favour of VAR. I don't think it is being utilised properly because officiating standards are incredibly poor. The Spurs/Villa late on in the season stung a bit. Spurs felt like they found a decision to give against us. One that we would never get. There was a handball by Spurs player in the same game and it wasn't even checked. This is compounded by the context of Vyds getting punched by Krul. They were pretty key moments for us. However, with a bit more perspective and time we were abject last season so we deserved to go down regardless.

I didn't watch that game but in matches I have seen forward passes are generally the contentious bit - and to be fair, they are pretty subjective given the camera angle usually isn't at the right angle. At least when rugby officials get it wrong, they provide some reasoning which the fans can hear.

I was 50/50 in favour of VAR, but that was before how badly it was implemented in European leagues which introduced it before the PL did.

I stopped caring about VAR decisions like the ones that affected us - there were just so, so many bad decisions I took it for granted we'd get either a horror show or the rub of the green each game.

And yes, I agree - you don't go down over a 38 game season because of referees. You go down because you're not good enough.

[bobinho]

A good idea, poorly applied, poorly managed and poorly scrutinised.

I won’t miss it. I was well up for it as I (wrongly) believed it would be the leveller.

So bad at times it became laughable.

[Spiral]

Has it?

For the really, really bad ones, yes, I think it definitely has. You don't get players scoring from two feet offside, its application to red card offences has been okay, you don't get scenarios like Thierry Henry's handball goal against Ireland and such. But its petty use outweighs those things too much and kills the game.

[Stproc]

100% ruined live football in the stadium.
You go to a ground for the rush of the goals. Last season I didn’t even bother getting off my seat as we waited minutes to see if we’d scored. It wants binning permanently, I totally hate it

[Hurstwood_Claret]

Definitely Not!!

[Stalbansclaret]

I naively believed the VAR would herald a new era of all-correct decisions and remove much of the bias (conscious or unconscious) of referees depending on home crowd pressure , ferocity and standing of team managers and club size. I'd failed to realise that it would be used inconsistently, that many decisions remain largely subjective and that the human operators of the system would so often be incompetent. Now I really hate it and would prefer to see it removed, or at least only used for absolute howlers (say offside with daylight between striker and second-last man in the build up to a goal and instances of deliberate handballs or reckless fouls missed altogether by the on-field referee).

[scamander]

Recent game against Australia featured two foward passes that were ignored. They just did not make a big deal of it in the analysis. There tends to be some chatter about interpretation around the break down and scrum. It really helps that they are broadcast and you can hear the thought process. Most of them portray themselves well and it makes a marginal decision more understandable.

Was broadly in favour of VAR. I don't think it is being utilised properly because officiating standards are incredibly poor. The Spurs/Villa late on in the season stung a bit. Spurs felt like they found a decision to give against us. One that we would never get. There was a handball by Spurs player in the same game and it wasn't even checked. This is compounded by the context of Vyds getting punched by Krul. They were pretty key moments for us. However, with a bit more perspective and time we were abject last season so we deserved to go down regardless.

The rugby instance falls into the remit of the referee being viewed very differently by the fans and pundits.

Did he see the pass? Did he give it? If 'no' then move on. The pundits won't go full CSI on it at half time, even the controversial calls are much more diluted. They are mentioned and then the pundits focus on something else.

A big wakeup call was playing in a vets league for a season. My view (that the ref needed to get it right) was not how it's viewed. In fact my captain had to have a word a few times with me. The expectancy is that the ref won't see everything and you just get on with it. That fundamental means that refs can be much more dismissive of any on-field calls or anyrhing flagged.

[tiger76]

Apologies if this has already been mentioned, but the one really big issue with VAR is the amount of time it takes to arrive at a decision, sometimes it can take 3-4 minutes, and these delays totally ruin the flow of the game.

For me it should be a maximum of 60 seconds for the VAR official to review any incident, and if they can't reach a decision in that time just revert to the on field call.

[Tricky Trevor]

VAR has never been the problem. The Aholes passing judgement are. More concerned with backing the guy in the middle than passing on the info that they have in front of them.

[FCBurnley]

I think it’s fair to say that the vast majority are looking forward to VAR free footy this season. At least there is one benefit of relegation!!!

[NRC]

VAR awarded Spurs a pen which I still think is wrong
VAR doesn’t award us a pen at Villa which is just about the same as the one at Spurs

with respect to consistency there ought to be an algorithm that addresses an incident that is a repeat of a similar incident. Kind of like citing case law in the court room. In the above examples the "case law" would have been present from the Spurs game (right or wrongly decided), and the Villa incident compared accordingly

All other decisions should either be pretty immediate where the rules are absolutes (offside or not) or immediately referred to the monitor where there is a level of subjectivity - let the ref on the field make the decision

[Jimmymaccer]

Not at all…………any goal is followed by that wait……..then wait……….then oh oh……….we touched an Arsenal player……..

No goal.

Or oooooooooooo did that keeper just take our players head off?…………………obviously not………

Nah won’t miss it a jot.

[ICL]

No. Sucks the soul out of the game.

[Stan Tastic]

I was in favour of VAR but the officials have ruined it with their ineptness.

Vydra being double-punched in the face by Tim Krul should've been a penalty and a sending-off, clear as day. It was lucky he wasn't badly injured by the punch or when he hit the ground.

That was the worst one for me and whoever was on VAR that match shouldn't be anywhere near another game.

[Nonayforever]

I was against the idea of VAR right from the outset and never changed my mind.
I was of the belief and am still of the belief that VAR was introduced as a means of including mid game advertising.
There is no way on earth a correct decision ( for the vast majority of incidents ) cannot be made within seconds of the actual incident happening with the tech that is available.

As for a goal being scored, the ref should have 100 % authority with VAR not even being considered.

[BennyD]

VAR should be used like the systems in tennis and cricket. Give each Captain 3 calls and let the referee run the match. If anybody has a problem with an offside, dodgy throw in, penalty etc tell the Captain and he can request VAR. Get it it right keep the call, get it wrong lose it and carry on. If an attacker has a foot offside and scores and nobody makes a call, it shows that despite the offence, everybody is happy for the goal to stand. That way the players get to make the call if they think the ref has made an error.

[daveisaclaret]

If you got three appeals a match you'd appeal every goal you conceded.

[NottsClaret]

Can’t wait to watch matches without it, the worst thing to happen to football in years.

And once again, for the people saying ‘it’s not VAR, it’s the people applying it’.. VAR IS the people applying it. VAR is just another ref, in a hut watching a TV and forming an opinion. It’s not a super computer running a million simultaneous calculations to give us a ‘correct’ answer.

Bottom line is, as an entertainment sport it’s robbed us of way more than its given us.

[elwaclaret]

‘Clear and obvious?’ Has been interpreted as ‘pedantic and nit-picky’ and No I wont miss it.