It's official. There's no point in having VAR look at potential penalties in the premier league. VAR is never going to overturn a decision or a non-decision.
The system is broken. Offside by a few cm based upon a relatively low frame rate video that doesn't precisely capture the moment the ball is struck with some fudge factor connecting lines to body parts, on a type of call NOBODY was complaining about prior to VAR, lets pull the ball out of the back of the net and waive off the goal. A stone cold pen on an impactful play that would have gotten some press as a miss, and 99% referees would agree it was a miss, lets do nothing about it. The juxtaposition is maddening.
I don’t see how any VAR could look at that and not say clear and obvious error. I get why Kavanagh missed the call, but that’s why VAR should be there. The contact on the upper body was much more in the back, and I also saw a pretty obvious clip of the leg. That type of call is why VAR exists. England needs to bring the intervention bar down a notch or two. If I didn’t know better, I’d almost say they are trolling the rest of Europe with this really high threshold.
VAR pulls a ball out of the net for Tottenham and it might have been an inch off. Might have been being the key part.
Fascinating to watch the VAR manipulate the lines to show where each player is located. The decision of where Son's arm begins probably impacts that decision, which tells me that the impression of precision is totally false.
Goals being disallowed for being an inch off, but we can't get a review to save our life for a penalty kick not given or for a red card not given. This is madness.
It truly is. VAR has pulled goals out for offside by centimeters and accidental handballs. But doing nothing to help facilitate more goals by awarding penalties or sending people off. Who wanted this? And for all the people who said VAR was going to mean refereeing would be less of a discussion once we had VAR... I told you so.
To be fair and so I’m not called a hypocrite, this type of play is NOT why VAR exists. VAR exists so that Henry can’t handle and get away with it. Or the obviously offside Argentina-Mexico goal doesn’t get awarded. It was billed as correcting the type of officiating atrocities that people would talk about for days, weeks or years. It was never about awarding penalties that probably should have been given but very often went unpunished. In that regard, England has got this right. They are implementing VAR consistently with how it was first advertised. The problem is they waited. And the rest of the world filled the vacuum and set expectations. VAR, in practice, is closer to “re-refereeing” in most places. England is trying to draw a line in the sand and turn back the clock. I don’t see how they can do it. They missed their opportunity to shape this. The football world now expects VAR to intervene on a penalty decision like this. It would happen at the World Cup or EURO or in the UCL. Having a totally different standard and expectations in the EPL is not sustainable long-term. Just wait until the title or relegation is decided on a non-intervention like this.
Well, because I think England has to adjust to reality now. If this was 2016 and England was shaping the course of VAR, fine. But the train has left the station. If it’s an obvious penalty via VAR every place else in the world, then England is playing almost a different sport if it’s not in their top league. We are talking about awarding near goals in a sport that has fewer than 3 per game. Having totally different standards for that is, um, problematic. I’d be fine with the English standard if it was the standard everywhere. But it’s not.
If I were a conspiracy theorist, I would look at the missed VAR decisions and see if there is any correlation with the amounts wagered on the games. I'm not one and just think these guys have no clue about how to implement VAR in any reasonable manner. It's just awful.
There is a MUCH larger margin of error for this compared to GLT, yet the powers that be continue to pretend that VAR can make that call with 100% accuracy and precision.
Yep...yep and yep. I have said so many times.... "level with" is still written in the laws. THIS is a perfect example of "level with".
If it’s not discernible with the naked eye at live speed, it’s level. Keep the damn flag down and keep the ball in the net. Why the hell change the game over decisions that have worked perfectly well over all the ages. This is not why var was invented but the powers that be want their money’s worth. I am in UEFA’s camp on the whole goalkeeper encroachment nonsense. Somebody needs to take a stand and push back.
I think a very illuminating study for the EPL would be an analysis of all the penalties given (and the sole straight red—I think there’s only been one) this year. I’d like the PGMOL to tell the world how many of those penalties would have given via VAR if they had not been given initially via the referee. That answer would either be close to 0 (in which case, the implicit admission would be that VAR is simply never going to intervene on penalties either way) or 100% (in which case the the PGMOL would be lying, but at least in theory they’d be arguing that VAR would still intervene for clear penalties and reserving the right for things to change). I really think the answer would be “close to 0.” I think the PGMOL is of the opinion that a referee can give an absolutely correct match-changing decision but, despite being correct, the exact opposite decision would not warrant video intervention as “clearly wrong.” And that probably baffles most people.
So we've played 60 games in the EPL season, if I'm right have not had even ONE OFR for a PK or red card much less a red card or PK given via VAR? That's statistically impossible! Even in the early stages of VAR when FIFA was in the process of rolling it out they mentioned in their studies that VAR would come into play once every 3rd or 4th games. I know I've rolled this statistic out before, but it keeps getting more staggering every time you update it. There were 64 games played in the FIFA World Cup in Russia. There were 52 games played in the Women's World Cup in France. They played 29 games in the UCL knockout stage and 16 so far this year in the group stage for a total of 45 games. There have been 60 games played in the EPL so far this season. All of those competitions have VAR. That's a total of 221 games so far with VAR. Guess how many red cards have been given via VAR for SFP or VC? Zero (Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but I'm just doing this off the top of my head). Guess how many red cards for SFP or violent conduct have been given on the field initially? I think maybe one or two and that is in the EPL this year for SFP? I know for sure none in the other competitions. It is statistically impossible. What's even worse is the way EPL is employing VAR (or really not) is that it is essentially encouraging Marriner's "look the other way" style of refereeing of not getting involved on any big decisions. By not correcting these misses, the referees are thinking they are doing a good job. It's just terrible.
35’ is the classic, “I swear we don’t treat goalkeepers differently,” non-call. Clear foul. Should be a penalty. Never going to be given. Oh well.
Quick flag in the 50th minute and the play after the flag goes up results in a goal line save from the Chelsea GK. I think the whistle went after the save was made and I would think if the ball was over the goal line, GLT would have alerted Oliver and the VAR and they would have delayed the restart. I can only hope...
My partner actually asked "Wait, shouldn't that be a penalty? While we were watching." I didn't think it was bad as Neuer on Higuain, but my answer certainly started with "ehhhhhhh" or something equally non-committal.
Very well put. Both statements absolutely correct. And, as MassRef suggests later, rather than them playing a lead role in ensuring that this was implemented as it was meant to be, their delaying and indifference has now created a problem, the price of which we are all paying.