The VAR - Video Assistant Referee Discussion Thread

[Pmalek]

Since the Video Assistant Referee is now being used in the major European Football leagues I thought we could have a thread where we could take about VAR, show examples of how it is being used and discuss the decisions to see what everyone thinks about it.

Here are some guidelines:

- Post some pictures/videos of the match or situation you would like to talk about.
- Post the decision that the referee/VAR made
- Tell us if you agree or disagree with the official decision and why.
- Please dont quote posts, especially those that have a lot of pictures to avoid re-posting the pictures over and over again.

It is quite easy so let me start with a match from today.


Juventus - Sampdoria 2:1

There were three situations where the VAR was used in this match.

1.
 

After reviewing this incident the referee whistled for a penalty for Sampdoria in this situation. Emre Can was clumsy in this situation but played the ball with this shoulder, upper part of his arm. I dont think this should have been a penalty because there was an intent to play the ball + it hit him almost in the shoulder. No penalty in my opinion.

2.


Another penalty following VAR. This time for Juventus. The ball hits the Sampdoria defender unluckily in the arm, he was not expecting it, made no movement with his arm towards the ball and was caught off guard. The two players just in front of him missed the ball and being just a few meters away he had no chance to react. Again, No penalty in my opinion.

3.


Following VAR a Sampdoria goal was disallowed because of offside. The ball reflects off of the player on the picture on the right and bounces to the Sampdoria player who is in offside on the left. Later, he scores a goal but since he became active from an offside position the referee signalled an offside position. Good call in my opinion and I was pleasantly surprised.

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[icalical]

Juventus - Sampdoria 2:1

There were three situations where the VAR was used in this match.

1.
 

After reviewing this incident the referee whistled for a penalty for Sampdoria in this situation. Emre Can was clumsy in this situation but played the ball with this shoulder, upper part of his arm. I dont think this should have been a penalty because there was an intent to play the ball + it hit him almost in the shoulder. No penalty in my opinion.

I don't agree on this one though, in my opinion, Emre was intentionally raising his hand so his arm touch the ball and the ball fly away from opponent's striker's reach.


Sadly I am from Asia, and VAR is not yet widely use in here, the only football competition that using VAR, as far as I know, is in Asian Cup, but I might be wrong. VAR will really be the best tool to prevent match-fixing, and it will make sport bet more fun and fair though.

[Pmalek]

@ icalical
According to many sources VAR is to be used at the AFC Asian Cup 2019 but from the quarter finals and upwards.

Regarding the Emre Can penalty, watching the video of the incident a 2nd time I am leaning even more towards that the referee made a bad decision because the Sampdoria player actually headed the ball towards his upper hand and there was no chance of him doing anything to prevent that. His only fault is the somewhat unnatural position of his arm.

[Naida_BR]

In my opinion, VAR is good for the fairness of the games. In my country, there are many corrupted referees and I hope that VAR is going to be used in our national championship as well.
Many decisions will be fairer and then the team that is worth winning the game will be the winner eventually. The negative aspect of VAR is that the pace of the match is stopped every time the referee decides to have a look at the screen. In general, I agree and it is going to be used in all stadiums and championships.

[eternalgloom]

In general, I'm glad that they're using the VAR for more and more games and I think they should have used it sooner rather than later.
Okay, sometimes it does mess up the flow of a game, as @Naida_BR points out, but further discussion isn't possible when you include the VAR.

I personally don't see why you could be against the VAR, I mean human judgment comes with quite a lot of error.

Remember the game between Belgium and Brazil in the World Cup?



Here Brazil wanted a penalty, because Kompany had touched Jesus, but after review with VAR, it was decided that contact had not been significant enough to cause the fall.
Agree or disagree?

If you remember that game, you know that Brazil tried everything to get penalties, their entire team was so focused on diving.

Got this scenario from here:
http://www.espn.co.uk/soccer/fifa-world-cup/4/blog/post/3533707/var-at-the-world-cup-a-timeline-of-the-tournament

There are a lot more examples on there.

[Pmalek]

I like how the Premier League is implementing VAR in the way that if the referee in the control room can make the decision himself, meaning, if it is evident from the replay what the decision should be, there is no need to involve the main official to watch for himself. That would make the whole VAR process faster. In many leagues the match referee is still the one who goes to the screens and checks the situation for himself. This is taking too much time. If the VAR room can make the call, do it and dont get the main official involved.

[jademaxsuy]

In general, I'm glad that they're using the VAR for more and more games and I think they should have used it sooner rather than later.
Okay, sometimes it does mess up the flow of a game, as @Naida_BR points out, but further discussion isn't possible when you include the VAR.

I personally don't see why you could be against the VAR, I mean human judgment comes with quite a lot of error.

Remember the game between Belgium and Brazil in the World Cup?



Here Brazil wanted a penalty, because Kompany had touched Jesus, but after review with VAR, it was decided that contact had not been significant enough to cause the fall.
Agree or disagree?

If you remember that game, you know that Brazil tried everything to get penalties, their entire team was so focused on diving.

Got this scenario from here:
http://www.espn.co.uk/soccer/fifa-world-cup/4/blog/post/3533707/var-at-the-world-cup-a-timeline-of-the-tournament

There are a lot more examples on there.

well that guy in the red were just like chilling while laying on the ground. I was having a hard time laughing with this guy checking his position. Is he really playing Soccer ball or just like to lay on the ground? Anyway with regards to OP's post about the use of VAR is really a good way to convince the players and the audience of the decision to be made. It will help them more to understand why a decision was being called after a review.

[InvoKing]

Don't have a picture to post but I just want to add a comment from the last World Cup. Overall the use of VAR was a good step (the other better step would be to stop the watch each time the game gets interrupted).
So scoring a goal with your hand, cheating to get a penalty kick and other ridiculous and game killing stuff will be reduced from now on. However stopping the game to watch the screen by the first referee is just ridiculous...another one should monitor the screen (all the time preferably) and tell the main referee about any issue...

[carlfebz2]

In general, I'm glad that they're using the VAR for more and more games and I think they should have used it sooner rather than later.
Okay, sometimes it does mess up the flow of a game, as @Naida_BR points out, but further discussion isn't possible when you include the VAR.

I personally don't see why you could be against the VAR, I mean human judgment comes with quite a lot of error.

Remember the game between Belgium and Brazil in the World Cup?

Here Brazil wanted a penalty, because Kompany had touched Jesus, but after review with VAR, it was decided that contact had not been significant enough to cause the fall.
Agree or disagree?

If you remember that game, you know that Brazil tried everything to get penalties, their entire team was so focused on diving.

Got this scenario from here:
http://www.espn.co.uk/soccer/fifa-world-cup/4/blog/post/3533707/var-at-the-world-cup-a-timeline-of-the-tournament

There are a lot more examples on there.

well that guy in the red were just like chilling while laying on the ground. I was having a hard time laughing with this guy checking his position. Is he really playing Soccer ball or just like to lay on the ground? Anyway with regards to OP's post about the use of VAR is really a good way to convince the players and the audience of the decision to be made. It will help them more to understand why a decision was being called after a review.

Chillin and been caught to the camera. haha. Well its just coincidence to be captured on that position.Talking about VAR I think its really necessary on having it anytime and as I fully agree above that even human referees can really give lots of errors on making decisions specially on the times like these.

[rodel caling]

@ icalical
According to many sources VAR is to be used at the AFC Asian Cup 2019 but from the quarter finals and upwards.

Regarding the Emre Can penalty, watching the video of the incident a 2nd time I am leaning even more towards that the referee made a bad decision because the Sampdoria player actually headed the ball towards his upper hand and there was no chance of him doing anything to prevent that. His only fault is the somewhat unnatural position of his arm.

Your opinion are perfectly correct i agree with you buddy, I am not a football fanatic but in my own opinion and hope do not hurt or to be offended to the referees out there any field of games, sometimes the winning of the team is on their hands, referee has power to manipulate the games to stand wrong decision.

[Pmalek]

I watched the Wolves - Liverpool match last night and on three occasions I was negatively surprised with the decisions of the linesmen.
I haven't looked for any videos or photos, I doubt there are any for the situations I will mention.

This match was covered with VAR. There were three very doubtful offside decisions in which the linesmen signalled for offside when in fact they had to allow the play to continue and in case a goal was scored review it with VAR and make the right decision. Checking the replays during the match I am certain they made a mistake in the 1st situation, the 2nd is very doubtful and hard to spot, but, it is possible that the player was also not in offside in that situation. Looked like a 50/50 decision. In the third offside situation the assistant referee made the right choice signalling for offside but again he could have allowed play to continue and the main ref would have had the help of VAR in making the right decision in case a goal was scored.

Seems like the linesman were not really at their best last night. The correct workflow is always allow the play to continue unless you are 100% certain that the player is offside. In case of a goal the action will be reviewed by VAR anyways. If there is a whistle by the ref - it can no longer be reviewed by VAR.

Did anyone watch the match last night?

[swogerino]

The VAR should be added to all the Championships, even to lower Leagues. The VAR will remove some part of referee judging impacting the game. Many games have finished with a different result because of "referee human errors" which we all accept by default but it shouldn't be like this. I think VAR is a very helpful tool to the teams.

[LFC_Bitcoin]

The VAR should be added to all the Championships, even to lower Leagues. The VAR will remove some part of referee judging impacting the game. Many games have finished with a different result because of "referee human errors" which we all accept by default but it shouldn't be like this. I think VAR is a very helpful tool to the teams.

It’s coming to the Premier League next season - 2019/20.

I think it’s mostly a good thing as they get more right than wrong with VAR although there are always a few decisions that I don’t agree with even with VAR. It’s still decided by humans so I guess there is always room for error.

Overall I think it’s better to have it than to not have it.

[Juggy777]

The VAR should be added to all the Championships, even to lower Leagues. The VAR will remove some part of referee judging impacting the game. Many games have finished with a different result because of "referee human errors" which we all accept by default but it shouldn't be like this. I think VAR is a very helpful tool to the teams.

I'll second that Var will be a great introduction in all leagues, especially in those matches where the title can be decided. I saw the Var effect first time when it was used to award penalty to, Manchester United in the Fa cup and I was impressed by it. I feel with time this technology will only keep getting better, and there will be lots of criticism for it too but in the long run it'll silence them all.

[DeathAngel]

Too many times huge games/titles have been decided by referee/linesman incompetence. VAR will go a long way to ensure we get the correct decisions & that’s all we want - A fair game.

[hahay]

VAR is not fully helpful in my opinion even though VAR technology is very helpful for the referee's decision as it should be, because the decision remains on the referee's power on the field, if the referee does not take VAR when an incident such as Real Madrid - Real Sociedad matches where Madrid should have a penalty kick a player was dropped by the goalkeeper, I forgot who the player was. This is just one where VAR isn't too helpful when the referee doesn't decide to see it.

[Pmalek]

The VAR should be added to all the Championships, even to lower Leagues.

It should but the underlying technology is quite costly and makes it hard for small teams in the lower leagues to finance. I am glad that it will be used now in the knockout stages of the Champions League. It is ridiculous that such an elite competition didn't have it until now. 

[cryptossi]

I like VAR and it actually adds an extra element of suspense to the game. The only problem is there are always going to be teething problems. So many issues in football are down to the opinion of the ref and it really depends on which one you get.

[rdbase]

The VAR should be added to all the Championships, even to lower Leagues. The VAR will remove some part of referee judging impacting the game. Many games have finished with a different result because of "referee human errors" which we all accept by default but it shouldn't be like this. I think VAR is a very helpful tool to the teams.

It’s coming to the Premier League next season - 2019/20.

I think it’s mostly a good thing as they get more right than wrong with VAR although there are always a few decisions that I don’t agree with even with VAR. It’s still decided by humans so I guess there is always room for error.

Overall I think it’s better to have it than to not have it.

I like how the Premier League is implementing VAR in the way that if the referee in the control room can make the decision himself, meaning, if it is evident from the replay what the decision should be, there is no need to involve the main official to watch for himself. That would make the whole VAR process faster. In many leagues the match referee is still the one who goes to the screens and checks the situation for himself. This is taking too much time. If the VAR room can make the call, do it and dont get the main official involved.

It will be be introduced to the premier league in August this year for certain as it was mentioned during a match I was watching yesterday.
So all those missed fouls and in the box decisions will be reviewed and awarded instead of being overlooked by the on the field referee.

[Pmalek]

@rdbase
Actually you are right. I could have sworn that VAR was being used in the PL already but it seems they are only using it in the FA Cup and in the EFL Cup. Thanks for the hint.