VAR Controversies Plague English Championship, Prompt Debate Over Future Use

The powerful English championship has been hit by several refereeing controversies since the start of the season, in a fairly classic way, but the discussions took on another dimension after Chelsea’s victory on Monday at Tottenham. The fever surrounding the London derby subsided with the incessant stoppages in play: the VAR intervened nine times, to invalidate five goals and exclude two Tottenham players, in particular, which led to 21 minutes of added time.

“I was bored watching the match,” said England coach Gareth Southgate on Thursday. “I was at the match and it just kept going on and on. Even without talking about the players, what about the fans?” It is true that the drama took a hit, and the football too, since the ball was in play for only 43% of the match, the lowest total for two years in the Premier League.

“Let’s keep playing”

For Southgate, “we’re looking for perfection in an imperfect world. There will always be decisions to make and interpretations to make, so let’s accept the decisions of the referees and officials and keep playing.”

Move along, there’s nothing to see ? This is also the credo of Ange Postecoglou, the Tottenham coach, who assumes his “old school” position: “goal-line technology”, yes, but video assistance, no, he says in love with “the purity of the game”. VAR breaks the emotions and, above all, the dynamics of a match, he argued on Monday.

“I want my team to play quickly, to attack, with a high tempo and to give their all. We take a red card and a penalty, so what? We accept and start again. But here, we have to standing for two minutes to find out if someone was offside or not.”

Giving up slow motion galore and video, in general, would allow referees to regain the central role they previously occupied, add some players. “Now they don’t want to make a decision or they feel like they don’t need to, since it will go to VAR anyway,” said Michail Antonio, West Ham striker. in The Footballer’s Football podcast. Postecoglou also fears a “constant erosion of the referee’s authority” at the expense of video experts: “We are going to be under the control of someone in front of a television screen a few kilometers away.”

Arsenal-Newcastle.

Credit: Getty Images

Limit VAR?

At the beginning of October, Mauricio Pochettino proposed going “backwards”, only letting the video intervene for offsides and to know if the ball crossed the goal line. “At the moment we are not happy with VAR, not happy with the people who run VAR and, worse, not happy with the referees, and that is the problem,” said the Chelsea coach.

A few days earlier, the Premier League had experienced its first big controversy of the season when Liverpool, reduced to nine men, lost 2-1 at Tottenham on a goal in the 96th minute, after being unfairly denied the opening the score in the first period. The VAR officer, distracted, had not seen the flag raised by the linesman and thought he had to “confirm” the absence of offside by the scorer. The English Association of Professional Referees (PGMOL) recognized a fault of inattention and communication, but the fever took time to subside.

The League Managers Association (LMA), the union of professional coaches in England, has notably suggested that the central referee work with the same video assistant in each match to strengthen their cohesion and avoid this type of error. “The PGMOL has confirmed to us that it is actively investigating how best to integrate VAR into match day refereeing teams, to ensure that the dynamic between the on-field referee and the VAR can be achieved. positive results,” Richard Bevan, chief executive of the LMA, told the Daily Mail on Wednesday.

2023-11-10 23:25:00
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