Championship clubs have set the VAR standard with their no vote
Video Assistant Referees can make mistakes too
Cathal Dervan, Editor
Look at Everton who loudly celebrated their first Merseyside derby goal at their new stadium, scored or not as it happened by Ndiaye, then had those celebrations wiped out by the video referee in a game they went on to lose to Liverpool.
It was another side of the VAR story across the motorway in Manchester a little later on Sunday afternoon when Gabriel should probably have been sent-off for his headwork in his clash with Erling Haaland in the top of the Premier League clash but got away with it because VAR didn’t get the call to arms.
On and on it goes. Officially VAR stands for Video Assistant Referee. Unofficially it could stand for Very Angry Response maybe. Or Video Again Ruins (it). Or Video Assisting Ronaldo as suggested on Facebook.
Regardless of interpretations, what VAR has really done, since its inception in a Dutch Cup game 100 years ago this September believe it or not, is divide opinions and annoy people.
It’s Very Annoying Refereeing if you like - in games that utilise VAR and games that don’t.
Deep in the bowels of Tallaght Stadium late on Friday night, the Shamrock Rovers manager Stephen Bradley made his distaste for VAR very clear. It should, he suggested, have no place in football. Instead of making everything more black and white, said Bradley, it has created grey areas.
He went on to claim that VAR is killing the game by expanding the decision making process to include a fifth official in a far away room.
Bradley made a good point. A referee is human and can make a mistake - although the Hoops gaffer was adamant that both penalty decisions made by Rob Hennessy in Friday’s derby, one for each side as we’ve said, were correct.
What makes real sense here is his point that asking another human being to join the decision making process in the VAR room adds to the chance of another mistake.
Referees, wherever they operate, are humans. And humans make mistakes as we saw at the Etihad when Gabriel should have been red carded for his headbutt even if it didn’t make contact with Haaland - who deserves credit for staying on his feet and not feigning injury by the way.
Arsenal without a suspended Gabriel for three of their five remaining Premier League games would be less of a threat to City and Haaland’s renewed title hopes.
But VAR agreed with the referee Anthony Taylor’s decision to book Gabriel and didn’t feel an error had been made by the match official so the colour of the card wasn’t questioned either.
In a week when another player was sent-off for a hair pull, Martinez of Manchester United against Leeds, that lack of real involvement in a game of such Premier League title magnitude seems even more ridiculous.
All of which, from Tallaght to Manchester, proves that VAR’s only real success has been to divide opinion.
In the old days, referees made mistakes but we all got to accept them and moan about them in real time. Now we have to wait - to celebrate goals or to bemoan VAR decisions.
Let’s go back to allowing referees to make mistakes in real time and getting on with it. Let’s follow the example set by the Championship clubs in England on Tuesday and vote to say no thanks to VAR. We just don’t need it - or the aggravation that comes with it.