Luke's Football blog

What is Var and when was it introduced?

Var stands for video assistant referee, and it’s technology that a referee controls, as he has loads of screens to view the decision that needs checking. It was introduced back in 2013 in the Netherlands, but in recent years, it’s made it to the biggest competitions in the recent years.

What are the advantages? 

The advantages of Var are that it looks at a decision a ref could possibly miss in a game and corrects it. Most of the time it’s used correctly, but there are times when it has made the wrong decision, which has led to bigger consequences for the teams that have been affected by the bad decisions.

What are the disadvantages of Var?

The disadvantages are that it ruins the atmosphere, as you can go from celebrating a goal to then having it ruled out afterwards for an offside or foul. If a bad decision is made, it causes a huge uproar across the football world, and there have been so many, especially this weekend.

What were the bad decisions this weekend?

This weekend, there were so many bad decisions, but one that stood out was the Soucek handball. Conor Gallagher took a shot, and as it went to the bottom corner, Soucek placed his arm in the way, stopping the ball from hitting the net. This was an obvious handball, but the referees didn’t give it, which was shocking. Another decision they got wrong was the Toney goal, as they forgot to draw the lines for the goal, which showed a Brentford player was offside, which made no sense and cost the Gunners 2 points in a title race.

How could Var be more consistent?

The decisions could be checked more thoroughly to ensure that no mistakes were made, even if it takes longer. As long as the decision is correct, it doesn’t matter. They should look at different angles to determine the outcome of the decision rather than just one angle, as that angle could show a different thing.

What could it do so the fans in the stadium know?

They could do better at communicating with the fans about the decision they are going to make so they understand it better. This would stop the commotion when their team has scored or not, as it takes the life out of the game when you score and celebrate, but it gets chalked off.

What improvements could be made so that these bad decisions don’t become consistent?

I think more thorough checks will need to be done so that decisions like these that have happened over the weekend can be made. Also, ref interviews are definitely needed so that the fans can see why they came to that decision, because fans are left baffled in these situations when the ref gets it all wrong.