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VAR

Pasquali

Pasquali

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Joined
Oct 17, 2024
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904

VAR has magnified handball injustices – time to adjust the penalties​


On Tuesday in Lisbon, Bernardo Silva’s attempted shot flies into the arm of Ousmane Diomande. He may be half a yard away at most. I’m still not convinced it doesn’t flick off his leg into his arm, but it’s blink-of-an-eye stuff. I tried to measure the time between Silva striking the ball and it hitting the arm – my reactions weren’t quick enough on my stopwatch (even in super slo-mo it’s about half a second). The ball isn’t going in; it’s going miles over. The ref is sent to the screen. Penalty.

The following day at San Siro Mehdi Taremi flicks a free-kick into the arm of Mikel Merino. Hard to tell if Merino has even less time to react than Diomande the previous night. Again, penalty – this time without the use of VAR.

We are at the stage now where many fans have been conditioned to believe that one or both of these penalty decisions are correct.

In both cases, the player’s arm is outstretched. It is “away from the body”. Footballers’ arms are often away from their body. They are arms. The technical term for it is “moving”. No one’s arms – apart from Michael Flatley’s backing dancers’ – stay by their sides. You do not need to have played football at the elite level to know this. You do not need to have played football at any level to know this. You just have to have moved a little bit. If you have engaged in any spontaneous movement, ever, you will know that your arms sometimes move away from your body.

We are at a crisis in terms of handball penalty decisions. Penalties awarded when a player is sliding to block a cross and one of their arms moves a few degrees away from their side. Penalties awarded when players are jumping for a free-kick using their arms for leverage looking the other way.

It is also a crisis brought on by VAR. Before it, these decisions were not given, or very rarely – a perfect example of how some laws of the game worked because there were no replays, no super-slo-mos, no endless angles. But because they’re now given in the Champions League and the Premier League they are filtering down the pyramid (not the filtering down we’re looking for, by the way).

Since VAR was introduced in the Premier League in 2019-20 an average of 104.6 pens have been awarded per season. In the five years before that the average was 92.6.
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Read more here
 
I would say that's a big reason why the 'double jeopardy' aspect to a penalty and cards were brought to handballs
 
My opinion is that VAR has created more hurdles than it was designed to alleviate. I must admit that the second and third generation of versions of it make it a lot less obtrusive...

My main issue with is, si from a purist point of view I suppose. At its heart football is a very simple game and I feel, rules should be the same at under 10s as they are in a world cup... just my opinion.
 
Monoethnic Social Club said:
My opinion is that VAR has created more hurdles than it was designed to alleviate. I must admit that the second and third generation of versions of it make it a lot less obtrusive...

My main issue with is, si from a purist point of view I suppose. At its heart football is a very simple game and I feel, rules should be the same at under 10s as they are in a world cup... just my opinion.
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Not a pro ref by any means, but largely am against VAR. It is very much a reap what you sow part of football for the media though, and that's the bit I enjoy - the salty, salty tears from the pundits who ravage VAR, but called for it in the first place.
 
It ticks off fans and costs a broke league a lot of cash

Getting rid of it seems a no brainer

Only downside is it means a league refs cant ref in international tournaments if there is no var?
 
Lower EFL seems to survive without it. Occasional blunder. My issue is how TV will pause to check the offside for audience at every through ball now. People have become rabid with this type of broadcasting. I learnt the other day, Grella should have been red carded against Brazil in 2006. A horrendous tackle. Given the 2am kick off and lack of footage, I never knew. Also, the tv broadcast must have made less about that challenge not to mention the commentary.
 
grazorblade said:
It ticks off fans and costs a broke league a lot of cash

Getting rid of it seems a no brainer

Only downside is it means a league refs cant ref in international tournaments if there is no var?
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yep I'd luv it to just go back to refs/linos make the calls right or wrong, we all lost our lollies on wrong calls back then but the game carried on quicker you move on - now we still lose the lollies as before BUT your are waiting 5/6/7/8 times after replays, seriously fark it off but the powers won't turn back time.
 
Playing devil's advocate here, if we have VAR at the NT level, then it makes sense to have it at the AL level as our players will become accustomed to it earlier in their careers and in theory should be learn to be better at timing their runs etc.
That being said, my problem is the implementation rather than the concept. VAR catching a player throwing an elbow at the opposition away from play is a no-brainer. I reckon most people are cool with that. I have no problem with the checking of red cards and penalties as there is already a delay with all the players crowding the ref and pleading their case. It's the armpit hair offsides and the 5+ minute delays that need to go. If we must keep VAR, I'd like to see time limits introduced. I reckon 90 seconds is reasonable. Display a big countdown time in the stadium and on the TV broadcast. If a decision cannot be made by then, then the original call is withheld and play resumes.
 
To drag your case out even further though if VAR is used at NT level and top flight football level you would want it at U23, U17, U16 etc etc NT level as well and thereby would also need to have it implemented in all junior football to not disadvantage any country's national team... ?
 
Monoethnic Social Club said:
To drag your case out even further though if VAR is used at NT level and top flight football level you would want it at U23, U17, U16 etc etc NT level as well and thereby would also need to have it implemented in all junior football to not disadvantage any country's national team... ?
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In theory, yet, but in practice there would be an obvious cost/benefit curve which most levels it wouldn't make sense, especially in cashed strapped Australia.
 
Football Video Support

Have a look at the Football Video Support system that was used at the 2024 U20 women's world cup. You can see it action during Australia's games. Low cost and decisions rest solely with on field actors ie referee, fourth official and benches.
 
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Veritas said:
Football Video Support

Have a look at the Football Video Support system that was used at the 2024 U20 women's world cup. You can see it action during Australia's games. Low cost and decisions rest solely with on field actors ie referee, fourth official and benches.
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Interesting…

Imagine something like that even at NPL level (not sure about outside of Canberra, but we only have a one camera set up except for the Grand Final, so not sure if the same in other states)
 
someguyjc said:
Playing devil's advocate here, if we have VAR at the NT level, then it makes sense to have it at the AL level as our players will become accustomed to it earlier in their careers and in theory should be learn to be better at timing their runs etc.
That being said, my problem is the implementation rather than the concept. VAR catching a player throwing an elbow at the opposition away from play is a no-brainer. I reckon most people are cool with that. I have no problem with the checking of red cards and penalties as there is already a delay with all the players crowding the ref and pleading their case. It's the armpit hair offsides and the 5+ minute delays that need to go. If we must keep VAR, I'd like to see time limits introduced. I reckon 90 seconds is reasonable. Display a big countdown time in the stadium and on the TV broadcast. If a decision cannot be made by then, then the original call is withheld and play resumes
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Just to go over step further I'd like the referees and linos to say goal or no goal like they do in rugby league.

Then the bunker reviews it and if they can't find anything obvious they go with the referees call.

Offside is difficult because wherever you draw the line it just moves the problem. Because 2mm is still offside.

Again they should take a leaf out of league's book and just go off the feet. So much easier to draw a line from toe to toe rather than armpit to head etc. Just base offside on where your feet are.
 
Veritas said:
Football Video Support

Have a look at the Football Video Support system that was used at the 2024 U20 women's world cup. You can see it action during Australia's games. Low cost and decisions rest solely with on field actors ie referee, fourth official and benches.
Click to expand...

That is interesting. I notice no offside reviews. Or did I miss that?
 
NicCarBel said:
Not a pro ref by any means, but largely am against VAR. It is very much a reap what you sow part of football for the media though, and that's the bit I enjoy - the salty, salty tears from the pundits who ravage VAR, but called for it in the first place.
Click to expand...

Correct. If they want to get rid of it then they need to stop banging on about shit that happens in games. Which they won't.

This all started because they used to say 'we've got the cameras, why don't we use them?'.
 
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