Arsenal’s 1-0 win over West Ham on Tuesday sent us through to the semi-finals of the Carabao Cup.
The subsequent draw means we’ll face London rivals Chelsea in a two-legged affair, and the two games will see VAR (Video Assistant Referee) being used.
It won’t be its first implementation, with the FA Cup third round clash between Brighton and Crystal Palace earmarked for that, but it will certainly add something to what’s already promising to be an interesting encounter.
The system is being used in the Bundesliga and Serie A, and it seems inevitable that it will become part and parcel of football in the future.
The date and times of the fixtures were confirmed earlier today. The first leg takes place on January 10th at Stamford Bridge, with the second at the Emirates on January 24th.
Finally. Can’t wait for it to be used in the PL too. The sport isn’t the same and refs need all the help they can get.
Honestly, we get calls for us and we get calls against us. Who’s to say how it actually impacts results over the course of a season?
But the thing is that it does harm to fans and to the game to have people questioning major decisions almost every week. There will still be mistakes, but fans will feel aggrieved much, much less often. Win-win.
Its using it right. if its used every time the whitsle is blown it will ruin football. If it used when there is doubt then that will improve football. If each manager has three times he can ask it to be looked into like tennis then a good idea.
Would rather the captain got to make the calls, Arsene doesn’t always see everything
i believe managers will abuse it if given three times. Like use it as a time wasting technique towards the end of matches.
There isnt that much of an argument really. It works, the refs are not of the requisite quality and there is a lot of time already wasted on crap refereeing decisions. Every sport that has implemented such technology hasnt looked back once.
It’s made rugby v boring, waiting for the cameras to run over and over for a decision to be made. With nothing happening on the pitch.
Thats one of the stupidest things ive ever heard. Rugby isnt boring because of VAR. you might just not like watching it. I loved playing rugby for almost two decades….but hated watching it, still do.
VAR has contributed to them having one of the most respected officiating infrastructure in modern sport.
We watch alot of replays in football as well, sometimes even way more than rugby. Watching the same offside or tackle or disallowed goal 15x whilst the players and managers lose their shit and whinge in the background. Getting on with the game isnt an upside of having no VAR.
Watch rugby and see how the players are forced to stand around, which doesn’t happen in football. I’d prefer to have bans for divers in retrospect, so that they really suffer from cheating. That’s get players playing honestly very quickly.
You mean respectfully waiting for a decision?
Watch football, and you will see a guaranteed circus around the officials instead.
Sorry but how is that better?
I loved watching it but don’t any more, there are too many breaks.
So ‘one of the most respected officiating infrastructure in modern sport’ but also deadly dull when we/the players have to wait around for 2-3 minutes as the VAR ref has to watch the incident from lots of angles, and the stuff that lead up to it in order to see what happened. One of the main advantages of football is that it flows.
Cuts down on cheating. Regardless who benefits, I believe it’s the right way to go.
The obvious argument against it is it will slow down the game so I think the best way to implement it is similar to cricket where you have 2 referrals per game. The captain on the pitch has the final say. If the decision is reversed, they retain their 2 referrals. If not, they lose one. This helps to prevent ridiculous referrals and to keep games flowing.
The game is already slow because of time-wasting, fake injuries and whinging at bad decisions.
They have a team officials. Instead of holding the extra minute sign and substitute numbers, they can just have someone monitoring the game. Such a waste of an “official”
You’d think so. I’ve watched serie A and bundesliga and I have to say I’ve been impressed by how it’s used and the small things like elbows and shirt pullings it picks up. Around 30 seconds are wasted but the refs already waste more in England calling players to warn them / teach them the laws of the game which an average fan already knows. My only reservation is that the level of bias in England in the media and refs is over the top and we will see managers complain about the VAR which is a good thing but… Read more »
If you think this will end refereeing controversies, just Google “VAR A-League” to see how it’s going here in Australia. I actually support the introduction of VAR, but the key to it’s success will be to implement it only when a very obvious error has been made.
Or just write clearer rules…to remove the vaguery which is designed to create “drama”. This isnt fucking WWF
https://www.foxsports.com.au/football/a-league/ffa-makes-changes-to-the-var-following-a-series-of-controversies-in-the-aleague/news-story/e5fb4d9f18d691933a48671722799b17 Good link and shows the problems – delays and removing the emotion from the game included.
So please justify ‘Thats one of the stupidest things ive ever heard.’ given what actually happens.
So you feel it’s an entertainment rather than a sport
Should have , and could ,have been used from 2002. Blatter and his cronies blocked it for no real transparent reason. Better late than never I guess.
If only we had this while playing the chavs and Costa…
Thank smeg, it’s about time. Bad decisions have cost us a ton of points this season. Against Stoke, we should have had three penalties and Lacazette was NOT offside. Against Watford, Watford should not have been awarded their penalty and we should have had one. Against Man $chitty, we should have had two penalties (but to be fair, $chitty should also have had one), and two of their goals were offside. Against Man Ure, we should have had two penalties and on the first, Matic should have been red carded. With VAR, we’d be a hell of a lot better… Read more »
The thing is though, of the incidents you have listed, possibly only the Lacazette offside would have got overturned. It has to be an obvious error with clear and unequivocal evidence that contradicts the original decision. Most penalty incidents would come down to interpretation, so the VAR wouldn’t intervene on a call where there was some contact but you could debate whether it was enough to bring the player down.
That is such a load of guff. Down to interpretation. Don’t buy into that crap that is peddled by sky sports and MOTD. Officials should write better rules, that are clearly enforceable, and don’t leave it up to “interpretation” and stick to them.
All the other sporting bodies do it, and it works like a charm, and the sport improves.
We now watch around 55 mins of football and 40 mins of rolling around and dead play.
Works like a charm? See the A League link above and then comment. Rugby far duller, I used to enjoy watching it.
I’m not saying no, especially given the rubbish decisions we get against us, it just needs to come in very intelligently or lots of people will get turned off watching.
I agree with your last sentence totally. The A league example is still football. The governing body, FIFA, have refused this technology for about a decade, and continued to write vague rules, and introduce stupid measures like 5th officials. The way they write their rules leaves it open to “interpretation”. If they didn’t do that, like in other sports, the officiating in general would be better, and VAR would definitely assist this. Have you even watched those examples in the link you provided? Looks like they haven’t found a way of using them. The video in the examples clearly show… Read more »
Finally, time to bring football to the 21st century.
Cricket, tennis and rugby have started using technology the benefits are clear for everyone to see.
Take a leaf out of their book and give both team 2 or 3 challenges. Where if a challenge is considered wrong they lose 1 challenge. This will ensure the game isn’t stopped to frequently.
And the if the decision is 50 50 it goes with the refrees decision. So the pricks don’t feel irrelevant or undermined.
A-League fans have portents of doom to share with you all…
What bothers me about this is- why start it in the middle of competitions?
Or end in the Karibou Cup!!
People have simply decided to not see how this could affect the game. They think we’ll be getting points left and right once VAR starts.
We get dodgy calls for us as much as against us, first of all. Secondly, much of VAR decisions are still very open to human interpretations.