Since the introduction of Video Assistant Referees, or VAR as we all now know it. The controversy around refereeing decisions seems to have increased. That wasn’t supposed to happen. VAR was intended to improve decisions making, reduce controversial decisions, and make football better.

If we look at some of the most contentious decisions in the seasons just before VARs introduction, we can theorise why we’d think that. Take for example the Real Madrid v Liverpool Champions League Final. Madrid won 3-1 but it could have been very different. Just prior to Madrid’s first goal Liverpool’s goalkeeper, Loris Karius, was elbowed in the head a few minutes later he made a horrible error leading to Madrid’s first goal. The elbow was deliberate and should have a been a red card. Arguably Liverpool would have gone on to win that match had VAR been in place.

Similarly, a VAR intervention would have led to Liverpool winning the Premier League that same season following some terrible referring in a few matches. In fact, if I were Liverpool I would be the biggest supporters of VAR given they seem to get the raw end of the deal most of the time.

VAR changes the outcomes of games. That is an undisputed fact. It also changes the outcomes of competitions. Old timers and football dickheads always sprout nonsense like ‘bad decisions even themselves out’. No, they don’t. Certain teams always get the rub o the green and others nothing. VAR is the great leveller. Or at least or should be.

What the VAR?

So, what’s the problem? Referees actually. VAR was brought in to help refs make the right decision. Only it turns out referees are incompetent. Another example involves Liverpool – what the fuck is that all about, one might think that refs were biased against them? In a Merseyside derby clash against old rivals Everton. Liverpool’s star defended Virgil Van Dijk was hacked down by goalkeeper Jordan Pickford. It was a horrible challenge that ruptured Van Dijk’s knee ligaments and put him out for a year. The result of the challenge? An offside free kick to Everton and no punishment for Pickford. The correct decision was a red card. What did VAR do? Nothing. Nothing at all. You see the problem was the referees, both on field and VAR. They were simply incompetent.

And this is nothing new. We know refs are often incompetent, all football fans do. They are also maliciously non-compliant. The American National Football League (NFL) have had VAR for years – with mixed results but generally much better than football for a range of reasons we shan’t get into here. A couple of years ago after another massive officiating fuck up, they brought in a new ‘reviewable’ offence – you see coaches can ask for a review on certain plays – one of Pass Interference. This is a notoriously subjective call at the best of times but nevertheless it was now reviewable. Guess what happened? Nothing. Almost no plays were overturned. The refs just refused to do it, they wouldn’t accept being told to get better at their job and effectively downed tools. The next season the rule was gone.

Red Card to VAR

There are those that advocate for the olden times. Those days when refs could just make absurdly erroneous decisions after another. VAR sucks, it doesn’t work blah, blah. But as we can see it isn’t  VAR that is the problem. It’s the officials. VAR was brought in to aid decision making; to make it so refs got decisions right almost all the time. And it has improved success rates.

The problem is one of success and failure. Because it has been pretty successful any failures are magnified. The other failure is epitomised by the very reason for its existence: referees.  Refs are fallible. Actually, they are really fallible, and egotistical. They don’t like being told what to do and told that they are wrong. So, they just do what they like. And being a fucking idiot seems to carry over into other decision making. Who’d have thought that a dickhead making bad decisions on the field would also make bad decisions in the VAR booth?

VARs fine, it’s the refs that suck.