Swango1980
Well-known member
I like this in theory. But even if VAR takes 5 minutes, the team that suffers will often complain. If they only get 15 seconds, they'll be accused of not thoroughly checking for a mistake. I think that was an issue with one of the earlier big mistakes a season or two ago. The officials were a bit too hasty in the process, and got the wrong answer.I can sort out VAR, it's easy. The team sitting behind monitors have 15 seconds each and they all (separately) watch the incident from a different angle. They then press a button and the majority wins. If you cannot make a decision after 15 seconds then it's not clear or obvious and the on field decision stands.
However, last night was far too long, and I just don't understand why. As fans, we seemed to be looking at a still image of the offside for about 2 or 3 minutes (and that was after VAR had already started looking at it before we did). We all had time to type comments on this forum, before VAR had even asked the ref to the screen. I think they had determined he was offside relatively quickly, but they then seeemd to talk for ages and ages about whether he is interfering. Either they are happy that Haaland is interfering and get the ref over to screen ASAP. Whereas if they have to discuss for ages if he is interfering, it suggests there is an argument he is NOT interfering. So, you just need to say "there is a good chance the keeper or defender where not going to stop that goal, we'll stick with onfield decsiion". But instead they spent a good chunk of the time convincing themselves there could be an argument he is interfering, even if the chance he was interfering was small. That is rubbish.