VAR shambles: tide of opinion turning as match experience is ruined

Whatever Neil Swarbrick does when he has finished his career as a Premier League referee let’s just hope he is not invited to become a judge on Strictly Come Dancing.

As the VAR experiment lurches from one calamity to the next, Swarbrick this week awarded it a mark of “sevenish” out of ten since it was inflicted upon us at the start of the season.

Arbiter Swarbrick did at least have the decency to look suitably sheepish as he delivered his rating but on that basis if he is ever entrusted with marking celebrities for their foxtrots he will be holding up numbers in the mid-20s for even the clumsiest contestant.

Maybe the “ish” was designed to give him a bit of leeway but this shambles would merit a seven only if it was out of a hundred and to claim otherwise is to show a woeful disregard for how football lovers currently feel about the most destructive thing to happen to the sport in living memory.

Unless you are a fan of one of those clubs who are still in credit as a result of one of the many pathetic VAR interventions that have so effectively ruined the first three months of the campaign, or have a personality defect that prevents you admitting you are wrong, it is borderline impossible that this weekly disfigurement of the game is giving anyone the remotest pleasure.

Mike Riley is due to meet representatives of the 20 Premier League clubs today and during the international break Riley and chums will presumably be hunkered down in Stockley Park, hastily defining version 38.0, or whatever it is we are up to. However, the options for rearranging the deckchairs on this particular Titanic are fast running out.

The latest straw everyone is clutching at is a focus on the hitherto ornamental pitchside monitors, which are increasingly seen as the last beacon of hope for VAR, even though the reality is they are more likely to exacerbate the problems than alleviate them.

If there is a potential foul in the box and the ref gives no penalty, the quickest way to clarify whether or not it was the right decision is for the VAR to review the footage and either correct or confirm the on-field call.

There is no logical reason why getting the ref to trudge across to the monitor to do the check himself is going to improve the chances of the right decision being reached yet it will undoubtedly slow things down even more and it is perfectly possible that pride will prevent the official admitting he got it wrong.

So that’s not going to help matters and nor are any of the other daft ideas being slung into the suggestions box by all and sundry. Take Martin Keown’s recent contributions to the debate, the first of which was that former players should be involved in making decisions from the VAR bunker.

Details of exactly what benefits that would bring were not forthcoming but the former Arsenal centre-back did add that perhaps VAR also needed a new name. I could help with a few suggestions if it is decided that one has legs.

One of many dismal aspects of VAR is the commonly-held assumption that it is here to stay however appallingly it performs. Why? The Sinclair C5 came and went because it was not considered fit for purpose (even though it would probably have had numerous benefits to the economy, road safety and environment) and 3D television quickly proved to be no more than a passing fad, yet VAR, a far worse creation than either of those, is apparently here to stay come what may.

We shall see about that. Anecdotal evidence from friends, colleagues, social media and radio phone-ins, is mounting that VAR is significantly spoiling people’s enjoyment of watching football.

This should surprise nobody. The viewing experience is terrible whether you are at the ground, where long stoppages are a serious aggravation, or on the sofa, with TV companies utterly obsessed with video reviews rather than actual football.

This was perfectly illustrated on Sunday when Fabinho rattled home a stunning 25-yarder to put Liverpool ahead in the blockbuster against Manchester City. His superb goal was virtually ignored because instead everyone fixated on the possibility of a handball in the Liverpool box a few moments earlier.

It was as pointless as it was annoying, and typified how football is now being served to us in a way that puts the emphasis on generating controversy rather than just broadcasting a great sporting event.

And then we come to offsides, the top item on the VAR crime sheet. Surely we will look back in years to come at how, during the autumn of 2019, we used to stop matches for nearly four minutes to painstakingly check whether a player’s nipple was in an offside position.

What a joy it was to watch Harrogate versus Portsmouth in the FA Cup on Monday, a game in which Harrogate took the lead with a goal that involved what would probably have finally been deemed a marginal offside by VAR but stood because this game was spared the presence of Big Brother.

One Pompey player briefly and lamely held his arm aloft and glanced hopefully towards the linesman, but he knew it was too close to call definitively. The game restarted quickly and without ongoing rancour, which is how it always used to be and should be again as soon as possible.

The tide is clearly turning against VAR and if Liverpool had lost points as a consequence of an adverse decision at Aston Villa two weekends ago I suspect Jurgen Klopp’s media disciples would have really got stuck into it in a way that would have put further pressure on the authorities to either get it right or discard it.

But with each passing farce, it can only be a matter of time before everyone accepts we cannot go on like this. The current deployment of VAR is unsustainable and there are no quick fixes.

If you are still of the view that VAR has a future, please consider this: it was designed to improve the accuracy of decisions and remove controversy. It has done neither.

We are now talking about refereeing decisions with greater frequency and intensity than ever before and that is the true scandal of football’s despicable new toy.

Eleven Lions to take on the world's best

England play their 1,000th international on Thursday, appropriately against Montenegro given that roughly half their fixtures these days seem to consist of routine tests against east European opponents.

It has been a lot more pain than pleasure following the Three Lions but that’s because we are all guilty of expecting too much from them, so instead let’s look on the bright side with a stab at the best England 11 of my lifetime.

Peter Shilton

The only keeper to have won more England caps than Joe Hart, Shilts would have been closer to 190 appearances than the 125 he made but for the fact that his career coincided with that of the equally superb Ray Clemence.

Gary Neville

Phil Neal pushes him close and by the time their careers have ended some of the current crop of superb right-backs might prove his superior, but Neville gets the nod for his dependability, spirit and toughness.

Bobby Moore

This is stretching the “lifetime” part because although I was alive when he was active, my only memory of watching him live was the 1975 FA Cup final. But he was clearly a legend and is readily included.

Tony Adams

Moore and Rio Ferdinand would have been some combo but Adams was a warrior and forces his way into the team because nobody had a stronger refusal to allow forwards to perform at their best.

Ashley Cole

This is a close one because Kenny Sansom was superb and Stuart Pearce did England proud, but Cole is England’s sixth-most capped player for a good reason. He had the lot.

Paul Gascoigne

In order to accommodate Gazza he has to shift slightly to the right, but that’s fine because he was capable of dazzling in any part of the pitch and, as England’s first true front-page football superstar, he had to be included.

Steven Gerrard

Needs no further explanation. Just an incredible footballer.

Glenn Hoddle

Hoddle and Gerrard would have been an extraordinary midfield partnership and it remains one of the most abysmal England-related stats that the maestro won only 53 caps. The first name on the team sheet.

John Barnes

The scorer of England’s greatest goal and the finest wide player to represent the Three Lions, Barnes was a wonderful blend of poise and power.

Michael Owen

He stepped up and performed in major tournaments, not least when thrilling the world against Argentina in 1998. Owen would have smashed scoring records to small pieces but for his long battle with injury.

Alan Shearer

Unless they have quietly made up after their recent spat it is uncertain how well Shearer and Owen would get on alongside each other in attack now, but if they had played together in their prime they would have formed a perfect partnership.

Shearer’s physicality earns him the nod over Gary Lineker and Wayne Rooney, whose England career was long but not excessively successful after such a spectacular start.

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