VAR horrors join death and taxes on the list of certainties in life
Thank God they can’t afford it in the LOI
There were no such things as rules for what we commonly now call Association Football when Benjamin Franklin famously wrote that in this world nothing can be said to be certain except death and taxes.
Mr Franklin penned that famous phrase in a letter, the historical equivalent of an email, back in 1789. He wrote it some 74 years before the first Laws of the Game were published and some 97 years before the establishment of the International Football Association Board to uphold such laws.
The very institution that is IFAB is back in the news this week after recommending to FIFA that players who cover their mouths when confronting opponents at the World Cup this summer should be red carded.
The proposal, adopted by IFAB in time for this summer’s tournament and to be discussed by FIFA at their Congress in Canada today, is a welcome one given some of the racist and homophobic abuse we have seen on the pitch in recent times.
Just last week, the Benfica winger Prestianni was handed a six game ban for homophobic behaviour towards Real Madrid’s Vinicius Jr during their Champions League game in Lisbon back in February. Vinicius Jr had claimed racist abuse on the night but that was downgraded to homophobia as UEFA took action last Friday.
We know IFAB won’t make any recommendations on VAR protocols when they sit down with the other FIFA big wigs in Canada today but they might get the chance to have a word or two with their European colleagues in between the lectures and the banquets.
And if they do, they might just look back at last night’s Champions League semi-final between Atletico and Arsenal in Madrid.
It was a game that ended 1-1 with all the talk afterwards about three penalties, two of them given and converted (to borrow a phrase from rugby) and one that was awarded then overturned after Dutch ref Danny Makkelie was called to the sideline for a review by the Video Assistant referee into the Hancke ‘foul’ on Eze.
As so often happens when the match official runs to see what the video official sees constantly on his television screen, Makkelie had a quick change of mind and rescinded said penalty, much to the ire of everyone from Mikel Arteta to Ian Wright to even Steven Gerrard.
Very few, aside from those with an Atletico affection, could agree with the decision to over-rule how Makkelie had reacted in real time. And not for the first time, a game of chess dressed up as the first leg of a Champions League semi-final was shrouded in controversy over a VAR decision.
Said controversy has dominated every headline since the final whistle blew last night and it will rumble on all the way to Tuesday night’s return in North London. Which is a real shame.
Sure, the game never matched the free-scoring love-in of PSG’s 5-4 win over Bayern Munich 24 hours earlier, but it was never going to do so with two managers hell bent on stifling any creativity from the opposition.
It was still a bloody good game of football with two penalties that were rightly given and one that should have stayed as a ‘given’ just as the referee’s instinct had told him in the first instance.
A VAR controversy was also probably always going to be a ‘given’ last night. We can’t seem to have an elite level game of football these days without someone bemoaning VAR.
Which makes me very glad that the FAI and the League of Ireland just don’t have the finances available right now to bring VAR into our domestic game.
They may well, in the not too distant future, do what their Northern Ireland colleagues are doing and start to trial a VAR Lite offering, the one turned down by Championship clubs of late.
But even that is a step too far if you ask me. Let’s go back to trusting our referees to make decisions of their own accord, even if they can make mistakes sometimes.
They are human after all and human mistakes are certainties - just like death and taxes.