VAR at Southampton

    Not sure if this has been discussed on the fishy but here goes anyway.

    VAR,  love it or hate it? personally i think it is good for somethings (not many) and really bad for most. GTFC are going to come across it again , as we did at crystal palace to our detriment.
   I really  think if VAR has not been used in previous rounds it should not be used at all but it will be and we will be bemoaning how cr*p it is.

VAR is very marmite. It ruins a lot of aspects of the game and just isn’t used consistently. The Tottenham game yesterday there was a very obvious handball but nothing was done about it. Yet, in other games you’ll see the most farcical of decisions given. I’d say it’s the people operating/interpreting VAR that’s the issue not necessarily VAR itself.

How on earth can you have a competition with variable rules at different stadiums? That is the first thing, but in any event VAR has just swapped one set of problems for another - whenever human beings are involved there will be mistakes either on the field or in the VAR control rooms.

What worries me is it doesn't seem to matter how many controversies it causes, the powers that be have deemed they have decided VAR is the way to go so that's that.

If Southampton score against us and it goes to VAR and is ruled out for offside I doubt many of us will be complaining about VAR.

It is what it is.

Quoted from lew chaterleys lover

How on earth can you have a competition with variable rules at different stadiums? That is the first thing, but in any event VAR has just swapped one set of problems for another - whenever human beings are involved there will be mistakes either on the field or in the VAR control rooms.

What worries me is it doesn't seem to matter how many controversies it causes, the powers that be have deemed they have decided VAR is the way to go so that's that.

Yeah I said this after the Palace game the other year , it doesn’t seem fair that the rules of the game or the way it’s refereed can change depending on which ground it’s played at

I do think it’s somewhat controversial and unequal. Seems to have been little talked about too.

It should be used at ALL FA Cup games or not at all in my opinion.

I think it favours the smaller clubs overall. The biggest influence on referees has been shown to be the crowd. It's a difficult thing to get right and is steadily improving. Technology is accepted in other sports and they all have differences depending on whether it's in place or not. Even at Wimbledon, not all the courts have Hawkeye and I am pretty sure not all county cricket games use technology to assist referees.

But I think for a game against a big crowd on average it will favour us, although obviously it's not guaranteed and could work the other way like at Palace.

Like I said in the other thread on this, there’s too much “grey area” with VAR and all it does is provide refs with more time to think about the consequences of their decision.

There’s zero, ZERO, chance that a ref would favour us over a Prem club on a 50/50 decision if it meant them going out of the FA Cup.

Quoted from Les Brechin

It should be used at ALL FA Cup games or not at all in my opinion.

All isn’t really an option, given the cost of the infrastructure involved to service VAR. But using it only where both sides are in the Premier League seems fair and sensible.

The issue with VAR is that it brings an extreme level of scrutiny that players aren’t used to in League Two and the like. Routine shirt pulls that are fair game in the lower leagues are all of a sudden penalty inducing. Players will have to adapt their game accordingly, which requires a layer of conscious thought that is yet another disadvantage when coming up against more talented, quicker thinking players.

There may be a sense of inequality between the show courts and lesser ones of Wimbledon, but technologies like Hawkeye don’t change the way players think and play - they just aid very close decisions. For me, VAR can only work against non-PL teams who are not used to playing with it week-in, week-out, and I’d be very surprised if we come out on the right side of any key, video assisted decisions a week on Wednesday.