VAR was brought in to improve football. But is it having the desired impact?
A host of players including the likes of Liverpool's Jordan Henderson, Manchester City midfielders Jack Grealish and Kevin de Bruyne have all spoken out negatively about controversial decisions made by VAR recently.
Its clear the inconsistency in the decisions being made by the VAR referees, is what's causing a lot of frustration for players, coaches, and fans.
These inconsistent decisions are being made and causing frustration because no two incidents are identical. There will always be similarities but a host of different variables to consider (speed of play, distance between action, intent, etc.) thus causing different outcomes for what's perceived to be the same kind of incident.
Its because of this, I think the mechanics around VAR's implementation need to be reviewed and additional actions for the betterment of the game need to be considered.
Football is a real time game, and a margin of leeway in my opinion needs to be permitted.
VAR's impact on the ability to celebrate a goal, and the time it takes to resolve a decision is another. It takes the spontaneity and instantaneous pleasure out of celebrating out of the game.
Its of no surprise to me that Jose Mourinho has been quoted as saying "We're going in a direction that's really bad for the beautiful game, the game that everybody fell in love with." and If I'm brutally honest, I have to agree with him to a large extent.
Until we can relook and resolve these issues, keeping the decisions true to what the beautiful game stands for and the elements which keep it entertaining and exciting I don't think we should be looking to introduce any further game changing measures.
Any additional changes without fine tuning and improving the current that are on the table, in my opinion will just keep us stumbling down a road which may have dangerous consequences.
I mean with FIFA's suggestion of increasing match running times up to 100 minutes for the World Cup in Qatar in order to combat "the amount of time the ball is not in play", how much longer will it be until we lose the model of two halves, in favour of four quarters?? I'm sure a decision the FIFA executive board have already pondered considering the economic benefit having more television advertising time during matches would bring.
Before signing off this week please let me know if you're enjoying the stories and if there any stories you would like to hear about. Also feel free to ask questions and I will do my best to answer them in my next column. That's it for this week. Make sure you head to www.soccer6.co.za to go play the TAB Soccer pools this week and keep the above story in mind.
Yours in football,
Coach Gordon Igesund
