Football - VAR In The Far Future

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  • An ambassador from the year 4798, sent as a goodwill mission from the former United Kingdom, known as England and Wales since 2022, has reported ‘encouraging progress’ in getting football fans to accept VAR.

    In a wide-ranging presentation, Ambassador Thaaarg spoke of fans of English clubs “starting to come round” to the idea of TV assisted decision making.

    Whilst other forms of technology, including human teleportation, total cybermetrics and the replacement of coaches by Giant Brain Technology have been readily accepted by opening up the Premier League up to vast new revenue streams, trying to get fans to accept a system that enables a referee to instantly detect a player in an offside position by less than one micrometer is still described as “Killing the game”

    He told a news conference that “We are due to have another meeting next year to discuss ways in which we can get English fans to accept VAR,” he added. “But we feel that it is still an uphill task.

    “Although the technology is there – it’s broadly the same as that used to calculate sun spot radiation harvesting - is accurate to within 0.0000003% and can be transmitted to the communication implant in the referees cerebrum in less than 1 nanosecond – many remaining English fans and pundits, including Alan Shearer’s 47th lineal descendant complain that it “slows the game down a bit,” he said.

    When pressed on the term ‘remaining English fans and pundits’ the Ambassador looked awkward for a moment, before announcing: “by the order of the Earth Council of Elders, I cannot reveal information to you that may change your history, even if it might save many millions of lives.”

    He then gave a furtive look at his teleportation band, before adding in a low voice: “Don’t trust Jose Maurinho.”

    The Ambassador remained for a while to chat about football with journalists, and was asked whether the England team still existed as an entity in the far future.

    “Oh yes,” he replied. “England still has a team, and we all know the song. “Two thousand, eight hundred and thirty two years of hurt, and all that.”

  • I think all footballers will be forced to wear these Alexa devices strapped to their heads to solve two problems

    1) Their every action will be recorded and relayed to a central control centre

    2) They will help to avoid the current panic over footballers injuring their heads when "heading" the ball

  • I'm not a football fan and therefore I can only comment as an outsider. However, as long as the information is made available instantly, I can't see what the problem is. Better to have a correct decision than an incorrect one, surely?

  • I'm not a football fan and therefore I can only comment as an outsider. However, as long as the information is made available instantly, I can't see what the problem is. Better to have a correct decision than an incorrect one, surely?

    I think that one of the problems is the lengthy delays whilst decisions are made, footballers who are geared up to play suddenly have to stop and wait

    Bit like marathon runners having to frequently stop

  • I think that one of the problems is the lengthy delays whilst decisions are made, footballers who are geared up to play suddenly have to stop and wait

    Bit like marathon runners having to frequently stop

    I did say that the VAR results should be made available instantly. Unless that is the case, it is unsatisfactory and unworkable in my view, as it would completely destroy the excitement and momentum of the game.

  • You must DM me with your drug dealers number, you seem to be in a world of your own :thumbup:

    Celebrate it, Anticipate it, Yesterday's faded, Nothing can change it, Life's what you make it

  • You must DM me with your drug dealers number, you seem to be in a world of your own :thumbup:

    Thank you for your constructive and intelligent comment (not) to what was a satire on the reluctance of football fans to embrace modern technology in the game. You can go back to sleep now, there's a good boy.

    Getting away from the spam and back on topic............

    VAR is a necessary innovation in my opinion. The game moves at a much faster pace in the modern era and coaches teach players the most sophisticated ways of fouling, diving, and other forms of 'dark arts' all intended to deceive the officials into giving decisions in their favour which would otherwise not be merited.

    The game is becoming a case of "May the best cheats win."

    In a game that is defensive and low-scoring in nature and where often only 1 goal divides the two teams, players are now encouraged to..... are expected to "win" a penalty. The very phrase 'winning' a penalty suggests that it doesn't come about by an illegal act by an opponent, but that the attacker has been proactive in convincing the referee that something has happened.

    I watched one live match a few weeks ago and on no less than six different occasions a mob of players swarmed around the referee putting him under pressure to award a penalty. Each was referred to VAR and found that no offence had taken place. Not one of the holdups in the game resulted in a penalty.

    The commentators said that VAR is killing the game.

    But is it not the players who are killing the game..? They are the ones doing the diving and the cheating. They are the ones creating the situations in attempting to gain an unfair advantage. They are the ones hounding the referee in mobs, howling and screaming in his face for something they know they're not truly entitled to.

    It is because of THEIR actions that the referee has to refer the incident to VAR and results in delays that causes frustration to players and fans.

    it's stating the glaringly obvious to say that if they didn't try to cheat in this way, the game would flow much better all of its own accord.

    In my opinion the FA are right to introduce VAR in order to combat cheating or the future of football as a sporting contest will be compromised.

    Fans don't like VAR because it deprives them of their moment of excitement when a goal is scored. They want to shout and cheer and pull their shirts over their heads and all the other things they do to celebrate goals. Fair enough. But what is more important? The integrity of the game or a knee-slide at the corner flag for the cameras..?

    Football is now a multi-million, nay, multi billion pound business and trophies, titles, relegations and all the money and fame and huge transfer fees and everything else can rely on one goal or one moment in a game that can be the difference between winning and losing.

    Don't you think it's worth taking a moment or two to make sure the referee gets it right..?

  • Hello Jenny,

    I am fascinated by your passion for football and you are well informed and spot on with your observations. I cannot disagree with a single word you say, not one, which will make for dull debate because we are supposed to take contrary positions.

    I remember the hand of god, the cheating bastard that is Diego Maradona. Not only did everyone but the ref see what he did, he openly boasted about it and nothing was done. Still, he got his comeuppance in the end so there has been closure on that particular event in my eyes.

    Then we have South Africa 2010 when Frank Lampards shot hit the bar went about a yard over the line and then bounced out and the ref didn't allow it. Goal line technology followed soon after.

    And then there was the famous (notorious) Thierry Henry handball against Ireland which knocked them out of the World Cup qualifiers.

    I am all for VAR, it was long overdue and many more matches than the three I have cited here have been possibly swung or adversely affected by poor ref decisions that could've been prevented with VAR.

    However, the VAR process needs to be slickened up. The criticism that it takes the sting out of the game is valid to a point although it isn't as bad now as it was when the technology first arrived. The problem isn't the goal line technology it is the subjective decisions that the ref gets a second chance to take a look at. When presented with a second chance it becomes totally unforgivable to make the wrong decision despite having the video evidence and I think this is a part of the problem. Call it decision paralysis if you like.

    There was a situation that the world of football hadn't seen before when the recent women's world cup introduced VAR and there were far more referrals to the VAR than perhaps had been anticipated and this created a situation where games were routinely running over 100 minutes which kind of supports the killing the game accusations a little bit.

    I think the process needs to be refined and the referees still need to make the majority of decisions on the fly and not refer back to VAR every time something happens. As for the teams demanding VAR I think this is valid but rather like tennis and Hawkeye decisions it should be limited to no more than one appeal each per half or some other low number.

    The whole system is still something we are all getting used to but I think it is the right way to go. Its just about getting the balance right.

    Celebrate it, Anticipate it, Yesterday's faded, Nothing can change it, Life's what you make it

  • But is it not the players who are killing the game..? They are the ones doing the diving and the cheating. They are the ones creating the situations in attempting to gain an unfair advantage. They are the ones hounding the referee in mobs, howling and screaming in his face for something they know they're not truly entitled to.

    This seems to happen regularly

    I wonder why refs don't get tougher, why do they need to take abuse. If players don't comply, send them off

  • You make some really good points there, Jenny.

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