I’ll start by explaining I’m a Liverpool fan. That said I think I can be objective.

Is anyone out there at the same stage as I am with VAR in that it’s got to be corrupt.

Just about every mistake this year has worked against Man City rivals. Every mistake in a City game seems to go their way.

It’s running football.

Liverpool, Nicolas Rada…

Alistair is that you?

I’m a modern day prophet.

The VAR officials are all passed out in the truck from listening to Nicholas Rada

Also a Liverpool fan, don’t think it’s corrupt, just really shit. It would be so much better if it was there to deal with obvious mistakes rather than trying to decide millimetre decisions. That makes the potential to look more corrupt, but just ruins the game.

@“Matty” you admit to being a Liverpool supporter, not explain. The explanation/excuse is irrelevant.

But yeah, VAR just needs to go.

As a Liverpool fan I think we have had some shockers; but I also look at Arsenal; Chelsea; Newcastle and they’ve had some bad ones too.

Seems City are immune to the bad luck.

I think we will see widespread corruption in referees; make sense now that City have been caught cheating on fair play.

    Matty not to mention Wolves who have been the most hard done by

      Should be used for clear and unjust calls and the mm stuff is just embarrassing.

      There are times when it’s refereeing the game. Clear and obvious bar to be lifted.

      Handball is a joke

      Unlike the cricket or tennis there’s still the human element involved, it’s half arsed. Either have technology make the decision or just leave it to the ref.

        I will once again say that adding a coaches challenge to the mix would improve things, imo. Would speed up the game and make the managers think twice before committing to crying foul.

          Applying NFL rules to the Prem?

          Lol, there’ll be talk of a salary cap next!

          Next Zack will suggest they should be allowed to pick up the ball and run with it

          Expect to hear the words franchise and organisation VERY soon.

          zackster

          Good shout.

          Said it before, it all obviously needs to be sponsored as well.

            Coaches challenge sponsored by Subway?

            Colour me interested.

            The Mastercard Manager’s Challenge would have everything sorted. All would be happy save the low T Arsenal fans.

            one huge problem is the relationship and communication between the on field officials and the VAR. Firstly, they are all mates and completely aware of the pressures each are under so often play it safe. I am sure that the nature and quality of the pile ons from different fan-bases is well known to them and influences them on a sub-conscious basis. No one really cares about Wolves or Palace (sorry) so they tend to lose out on the marginal decisions against bigger clubs. The dynamics are different of course when the larger clubs play each other. A better system would have completely separate specialist VAR refs doing it all the time and not being best mates with the on-field officials.

            Secondly, the test for intervention is fucked up. “Clear and obvious” is a high standard of proof - but what if the ref has not seen the incident ? When this system came in I thought it would be open to on filed refs to self-refer certain incidents without prompting from others just to make sure that he saw the whole incident from all angles. The system would have much more credibility if the ref himself wanted to check things rather than being sent over when the ‘clear and obvious mistake’ decision - i.e. the appellate or Tier 2 decison has already been taken and leaves the chap plodding over to the screen with nowhere to go. The system would have far more credibility if the test was the VAR team see a probable case for review and simply invite the ref to look again without gaming the review by telling him what they think. You can almost see some of them reluctantly give a marginal penalty in review against their better nature because they have been told to do so by the VAR ref. They should just simply shut up and say please have a look at this because you may not have seen it clearly.

            Thirdly, there is no really satisfactory answer to the hand-ball question. Years ago John Terry would seek to block shots by aping an eagle about to take off in the knowledge that if it hit is hand that would be ‘ball to hand’ and no pen. hence the shift to unnatural positioning. now we have deflections at high speed onto the arm given as a pen where there is no intent at all, reckless or otherwise which means the pendulum has gone too far the other way. there is not much of a happy medium which can be applied consistently - we have live with one extreme which is ok if it is applied consistently - which it isn’t!