VAR Again

By AM Tuesday, November 7, 2023

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Peter Anderson ⚽ I tuned into the Saturday early kick-off game hoping to see Fulham tanking Man U. 

Unfortunately, it was not to be. The match itself was of poor quality, but there were two notable facts from the game.

Firstly, Harry Maguire played a blinder. The much maligned former captain has become a regular this season and even with Varane back to fitness he has kept his berth in the starting eleven and is playing very well.

The second talking point was the complete shambles that is VAR. United scored a perfectly good goal from a free kick. The free was delivered to the back post where the on rushing Garnacho met the ball and put it back down the "corridor of uncertainty" where Scott MacTominay slotted home. The problem was that while Garnacho was onside Harry Maguire's shoulder was offside,even though Maguire did not get anywhere near the ball. The ref went over and after the review disallowed the goal.

Apparently "subjective offside" rules were breeched so the goal was chalked off for Maguire "interfering with play". It seemed extremely harsh in real time. Maguire was barely offside.

It raises the question of what exactly is an offside? When I played footy as a kid, we self-enforced a "No Poachers Goal" rule when playing in the street. If there is no offside then an attacker can simply stand in the opponent's box and wait for a long hoof up-field.

We all understand this and accept that for a good game you cannot have attacking players standing behind the defence, but FFS, come on. It has got so ridiculous now that lines are drawn and toes and shoulders are deemed offside. Man U's goal in real time looked perfectly good.

We had to wait 4 minutes for a decision and that decsion was to disallow the goal on a technicality. The thing that really gets my goat is that who knows the precise millisecond that the attacker made contact with the ball. The lines are drawn when the VAR ref deems that the attacker played the ball. But it is absolutely crucial to know the exact millisecond as with players moving at speed that millisecond could prove decisive. But do we really have to go to that extreme? If the attacker is more or less level with the last defender should that not be enough? He isn't exactly poaching or even behind the last defender. Can we not have a looser interpretation for the sake of the game?

Another VAR controversy happened on Saturday night during the Toon v Gunners game, in that instance the goal stood but we had another long review. After the game Arteta lost the run of himself and spoke out of turn. If his new, expensive goalkeeper had just caught the ball then there would have been no need for a VAR review. When goals go in the first thought now is if it will pass the VAR review. VAR was brought in to stop the blatant mistakes, like the scorer being behind the last man or a missed deliberate handball. This season, despite the best efforts of the PGMOL, VAR is continuing to ruin games.

Peter Anderson is a Unionist with a keen interest in sports