mark rowe

VAR I enthusiastically welcomed it. Was sold on the higher percentage of right decisions so we could all go home knowing football justice had been done and we could concentrate on which player was crap instead. But I was wrong. Woefully and completely wrong. Waiting 5 minutes for a decision to be made alone means the system isn't fit for purpose. Why? Because I sat with TV producers who said everything would be wrapped up in 10-30 seconds. It has literally taken the spontaneous joy from the most important part of the game. A goal. Then, one thing completely blindsided me and many others. Subjectivity. I thought there would be science and a nailed on guarantee of a successfully and universally accepted decision. How wrong we were. Instead, arbitrary lines are drawn that simply can't with any certainty say whether a player is offside or not. So a human in a portacabin, 200 miles away only does what the referee can do, make a best guess. Likewise handballs, dives, any penalty decision to be honest. A subjective decision decided out of stadium allowing an increasingly small and poor refereeing pool a get out of jail free card. Instead of them making a shit decision and owning it, they just pass it on 200 miles away so 3 men in a portacabin can make a shit decision instead. Lunacy. For the love of the game, let's go back to investing in getting more referees, respecting them so that they join the trade and don't feel constantly abused. In short, treat them like rugby referees. Ultimate respect. Then, fuck VAR off, it's ruined the game, made it petty and chaotic, and taken that one ingredient that you simply can't replace, instantaneous joy. As a player and fan I accepted a referee making a bad decision in a game in the same way I accepted fucking up a shot or pass. We're all human. Let's get back to that, humans doing their best, everyone walks away from the ground accepting that and less unrealistic pressure put on officials to be perfect when perfection doesn't exist in any walk of life. VAR stinks. A system designed to help is a massive hindrance and it's about time pundits, fans, players, referees, clubs put pressure on authorities to get rid of it. We only need goal line tech, the rest can and should be refer refereed by humans making their best judgement. A best judgement that was over 98% right( audited fact pre VAR). Enough is enough, fuck it off.