VAR, VAR, VAR

Let’s all sing along together.

How is it possible to get into this position? VAR isn’t the problem, just the crazy manner in which it’s being used.

Last season the focus was mainly on borderline offsides. This season attention has been turned to awarding ridiculous penalties.

Fans everywhere feel aggrieved by this. Newcastle United fans at Tottenham would have sheepishly accepted the generous offering, knowing that what happened has little resemblance to football.

Newcastle were given a goals expectation of around 0.8 before the match, giving a probability of 0.45 that they did not score, not far off being 50/50 whether they could score a goal at any time throughout the game. Along comes the implementation of VAR and literally hands them their goal expectation for the whole 90 minutes in 1 second.

Had they done anything to merit the goal? Was there really any danger to the Tottenham defence at that moment? Was their any intent by Tottenham to prevent a goal scoring opportunity? No, no and no.

Curiously, at precisely that time, my son’s team was awarded the softest of penalties when 1 of our players struggled to stay on his feet. The penalty was saved, the match drawn but there was a common point. Neither event was what I would regard as a foul but crucially, the likelihood of a goal being scored from that attack was really low. Both matches ended 1-1, you can spend 90 minutes (or 100 in some cases) scoring 1 goal, so the reality is that in any individual attack the chances of scoring are not high.

This is not a direct war on VAR. This is all about its implementation, but it does raise a question about the awarding of penalties. There aren’t many penalties that are justified on the basis that somebody has prevented a clear goal scoring opportunity and that for me is what this should be about.

Most teams will not score more than 1 goal in a game. To get that goal when there’s little danger to a defence is totally inappropriate. Stop awarding penalties for incidents that are not fouls. Handball needs to be deliberate or certainly viewed as an attempt to gain an advantage.

Look at some of the rules which have been changed over recent years. At the kick-off, the ball does not need to go forward and if the ball hits the referee then the game is restarted with a drop ball. Hardly changes that make a difference to the scheme of things. How about some of the rules that are ignored by players? In most other sports you will be penalised for not retreating when a foul is awarded against you. In football it appears that is nothing to worry about. In fact, you can even hang around long enough to kick the ball away.