Ten Reasons Why We Need VAR

We, as human beings, are very spoiled and indecisive.

Too many times we demand for something and as soon as we get it, we endlessly complain about how it isn’t good enough and demand more. There are many examples of this that come to mind, video assistance referee (VAR) being one of them.

For the umpteenth time this season there was a commotion and uproar regarding the use of VAR. West Ham lost 1–0 to Sheffield United at Bramall Lane but The Hammers were cruelly denied a goal in the dying moments of the game.

Robert Snodgrass’ goal in stoppage time sparked chaotic scenes amongst the travelling West Ham fans. David Moyes simply could not hold back his delight as he sprinted down the touchline to celebrate what he thought was a crucial equaliser.

But once again, VAR crashed the party. West Ham’s goal was ruled out after an alleged handball by Declan Rice, much to the delight of the home fans who began chanting “VAR, VAR!” at the sound of the final whistle.

You could sense the anger that was surging through the veins of Rice, who let rip on VAR in his post-match interview. Speaking to Sky Sports, the Englishman said:

“Pretty much everyone doesn’t want VAR in the game. There have been so many decisions this season that have been absolutely crazy. They (Sheffield United) were celebrating VAR like it was a goal and football should not be like that!”

Rice does have a point and certainly is not the only one who will be delighted to see the back of VAR.

Prior to their home game against Arsenal last weekend, the Crystal Palace fans held up a banner saying “Killing the passion! Killing the atmosphere! Killing the game! End VAR now!”

VAR was also at the heart of the controversy in the Liverpool-Wolves game at Anfield two weeks ago.

The West Midlanders lost to the league leaders in a narrow 1–0 defeat however, the talking points of the game were Sadio Mané’s goal in the 42nd minute and Pedro Neto’s goal being disallowed at the end of the first half.

In the build up to Mané’s goal, the ball looked to have made contact with Virgil van Dijk’s hand. Anthony Taylor’s decision to overrule the goal was overturned by VAR and the goal stood, giving Liverpool the lead on the brink of half-time.

Minutes later, Pedro Neto’s low drive past Allison was disallowed by VAR as a result of Diogo Jota’s arm being offside by the most minuscule of margins. The Wolverhampton players were visibly incandescent with rage and their manager, Nuno Espírito Santo, was booked by Taylor following his outburst on the touchline.

Shortly after the game, several polls on Twitter indicated that the overwhelming majority of fans throughout the country are vehemently against VAR and want it scrapped altogether as they feel that it is killing “the beautiful game”.

Personally, I understand why so many people resent VAR and want it to be done away with.

But having said that, this is an extreme reaction and these fans are being blinded by their short-sightedness of the bigger picture.

Yes, VAR is being grossly mishandled by referees and it is having a negative, reverberating effect on the game. But, in spite of its numerous flaws, VAR is incredibly fundamental and thus, must remain in the game due to the infinite number of appalling and very costly refereeing decisions that have been made over the last few years and decades.

Here are twelve examples as to why VAR is needed in football.

10) Robert Pires’ Dive against Portsmouth (2003/04)
Newly promoted Portsmouth arrived to the capital to face-off against Arsenal at Highbury in a Saturday afternoon clash early in the season.

Teddy Sherringham nodded Pompey in front in the 26th minute but minutes later, Alan Wiley awarded a penalty to Arsenal after Dejan Stefanović’s clumsy challenge brought Robert Pires down inside the box.

But the replays showed that there was hardly any contact made on the Frenchman. Regardless, Thierry Henry equalised from the spot and brought the game level.

The game ended in a 1–1 draw and Portsmouth were harshly denied a famous away win.

Arsenal’s unbeaten run would have ended after just seven games had there been VAR and that famous invincible team would not have existed at all.

9) Didier Drogba’s Winning Goal at Old Trafford (2009/10)
Manchester United and Chelsea were pretty much neck-and-neck in the title race throughout the majority of the season.

The two teams faced off at Old Trafford in a hotly contested title deciding fixture in April 2010, with Man United one point ahead after 33 games played.

But when it was all said and done, Chelsea were the victors in a 2–1 win thanks to a goal by Didier Drogba in the 78th minute, despite the fact that the Ivorian was clearly offside.

Chelsea then went on to win the league title albeit by a point.

8) Harald Schumacher’s Tackle on Patrick Battiston (1982 World Cup, Semi-Final).
This tackle was so horrific that it would be enough to make rugby players cringe.

In fact, I would even argue that this tackle would get you an ejection in NFL, that is just how utterly reckless and reprehensible it was.

Almost 40 years later and Battiston himself admitted that this challenge still haunts him.

West Germany played France in the 1982 World Cup semi-final at the Ramón Sánchez Pizjuán Stadium in Seville.

At the hour mark, Battiston was put through on goal from a through ball by Michel Platini.

Before he was about to unleash his shot, Schumacher flew out of his goal and torpedoed Battiston, who fell to the ground unconscious, with two of his teeth knocked out and a damaged vertebrate. The Frenchman later slipped into a coma and was stretchered off the field after the emergency medics administered him with oxygen.

Some of the fans in attendance and players, including Platini, initially believed that he was dead as he lay on the ground for several minutes completely motionless.

Shockingly, the Dutch referee, Charles Corver, took absolutely no action whatsoever against Schumacher despite the German almost ending Battiston’s career.

The game ended in a 3–3 draw after extra time but West Germany won 5–4 in the penalty shootout and went through to the final after Didier Six and Maxime Bossis were denied by Schumcher from the spot kick.

7) Italy vs. South Korea (2002 World Cup, Round of 16)
Unquestionably one of the most notorious and contentious games in the entire tournament and possibly even World Cup history. Needless to say, Bryon Moreno, the Ecuadorian referee, had a woeful game and was completely out of his depth.

Damiano Tommasi had his goal wrongly disallowed, Choi Jin-cheul’s reckless two-footed lunge on Gianluca Zambrotta went completely unpunished as did Kim Tae-young’s elbow in the face of Alessandro del Piero. However, the game completely flipped turned upside down in the 103rd minute.

With both teams being tied at 1–1 in extra-time, Francesco Totti was clearly brought down in the penalty box by Song Chong-gug.

The Italians initially believed that Moreno was going to give them a penalty. Instead, the Ecuadorian awarded a free-kick to the Koreans and shockingly sent off Totti for diving.

Ahn Jung-hwan’s header past Gianluigi Buffon in the 117th minute sent Italy crashing out and put South Korea through to the quarter-final.

The Italians were so irate by the standard of refereeing that they went as far as to refuse to acknowledge their defeat. Furthermore, Ahn Jung-hwan’s loan deal with Perugia was terminated in an act of petty retribution.

Sports commentator and journalist, Giorgio Tossatti, blasted Moreno in ‘Corriere della Sera’ where he wrote “Italy have been thrown out of a dirty World Cup where referees and linesmen are used as hitmen.”

6) Spain vs. South Korea (2002 World Cup, Quarter Final)
Yet another game that was plagued with controversy in a tournament that was rife with awful refereeing decisions.

The game ended in a 0–0 draw and neither side were able to score a goal in extra time, which resulted in a penalty shoot-out where South Korea were victorious. However, the Spaniards vociferously cried foul after the game and were less forgiving than their Italian counterparts.

At the heart of the controversy was Gamal Al-Ghandour, the Egyptian referee, ruling out two perfectly good goals from Spain.

The first one from Rubén Baraja in the 50th minute, for an alleged push, and the latter from Fernando Morientes in the 90th minute, due to the linesmen judging that the ball had gone out of play prior to Joaquín’s cross into the penalty box.

The referees though were incorrect on both occasions and once again, South Korea got away with murder.

5) Thierry Henry’s Handball against Rep. Ireland (2010 World Cup Qualifier)
Eleven years later and the Irish are still seething from this incident.

The two teams faced off in a World Cup play-off over two legs. The French had defeated Ireland in Dublin thanks to a goal from Nicholas Anelka but had lost the second leg in Paris 1–0 after Robbie Keane’s goal in the 33rd minute put Ireland level on aggregate.

The game then ascended into chaos in the 103rd minute.

Florent Malouda’s free-kick bounced through to Thierry Henry on the left of the box. Before the ball ran out of play, the Frenchman controlled the ball with his left hand, twice, and laid the ball to William Gallas, who poked the ball past a hapless Shay Given and into the back of the net.

In spite of the protest and pandemonium from the entire Irish team, the goal stood much to the horror and utter bemusement of ‘The Boys in Green’. The calls for a replay after the game fell on deaf ears as France went on to book their place at the 2010 World Cup, at Ireland’s expense.

4) Arsenal vs. Man United (2004/05)
‘The Battle of Old Trafford II’ was billed as a titanic boxing match between two heavyweight boxers, both of them being fierce rivals.

Arsenal, the champions, came to Old Trafford in October 2004 on a phenomenal 49-game unbeaten streak and were looking to make it 50 games against their worst enemies, Manchester United.

The Red Devils were out for blood and hellbent on exacting revenge over Arsenal as a result of the incident the previous year where several of their players assaulted Ruud van Nistelrooy after the game, following his last-minute penalty miss.

There were several contentious moments during the game, most notably van Nistelrooy’s recklessly high tackle on Ashley Cole, Rio Ferdinand’s foul on Freddy Ljungberg in the penalty box and the numerous rash lunges by the Neville Brothers on José Antonio Reyes.

On almost every occasion, Mike Riley took little to no action against the home team, which incensed both the Arsenal players and Arsène Wenger.

The game then erupted in the 73rd minute when Mike Riley awarded a penalty to Man United after Sol Campbell looked to have brought Wayne Rooney down in the box. But replays showed that Rooney dived to win the penalty.

United eventually conquered Arsenal with a 2–0 win and subsequently put an end to their historic unbeaten run.

3) Chelsea vs. Barcelona (2008/09 Champions League Semi-Final)
The bile taste still remains in the mouth of every Chelsea fan worldwide, who still convulse with anger whenever this match is brought to mind.

The mere mention of Tom Henning Øvrebo’s name is enough to make their blood boil following his car crash performance that night.

The first leg ended in a goalless stalemate at the Nou Camp. However, there were plenty of fireworks at the game at Stamford Bridge.

Things took off in ninth minute when Michael Essien’s 20-yard rocket fired Chelsea into the lead.

The Blues were then left reeling after they were incredulously denied a penalty on four occasions.

Daniel Alves brought down Florent Malouda inside the penalty box, although Øvrebo can be forgiven for this one as it was on the edge of the penalty box. He most definitely could not be forgiven for the other three incidents.

That second came from a shirt-tugging offence from Eric Abidal on Drogba.

The final two were blatant handballs from Gerard Piqué and Samuel Eto’o that were so obvious that even Stevie Wonder himself would have spotted them from several miles away.

Chelsea were agonisingly close from sealing their place in the Champions League final against Man United for the second consecutive year but were denied by Andrés Iniesta, who broke their hearts with a last gasp thunderbolt into the top corner from the edge of their penalty box.

The ire of the Chelsea players after the game was so great that Drogba branded Øvrebo “a f***ing disgrace” live on camera and needed to be restrained by multiple security guards.

2) Spain vs. Netherlands (2010 World Cup Final)
Till this day I am not sure if I was watching a World Cup final or a cage fight. Calling the match haywire does not even come within a whisker in describing just how chaotic this game was. This is incredibly confounding, especially given the fact that beautiful football is very integral to both nations.

Notwithstanding Howard Webb’s credentials as a top referee, he was completely overwhelmed by the occasion. In fact, the Englishman described this game as the worst that he officiated in his career.

There were 46 fouls committed in total, by far the most in World Cup history. The most shocking foul came in the 28th minute when Nigel de Jong, a player who is renowned for his physicality, fly-kicked Xabi Alonso in the chest. Remarkably, the Dutchman only received a booking. Despite the mass number of fouls committed, only one player (Johnny Heitinga) was sent off. Nonetheless, up to 13 yellow cards were issued by Webb.

All in all, this was quite possibly the worst final in World Cup history. A view that was shared by Johan Cruyff, who used terms such as “ugly”, “vulgar” and “anti-football” to describe both the match and Holland’s performance in an interview with ‘El Periódico de Catalunya’.

1) Diego Maradona’s Handball against England (1986 World Cup, Quarter Final)
This one was clearly a no-brainer. This goal, which was latter dubbed ‘The Hand of God’, is without question the most scandalous goal in the history of football.

There was absolutely no love lost between England and Argentina. A cloud of animosity completely engulfed the Azteca Stadium in Mexico City where the two were set to face off and the build-up was brimming with tension.

The disdain towards each other was because of the Falklands War four years prior to this match and their unforgettable meeting in the 1966 World Cup, where Antonio Rattin discourteously stomped over the royal carpet at Wembley Stadium after he was sent off. Sir Alf Ramsey added fuel to the fire when he referred to Argentines as “animals”, a remark that enraged them as it was considered racist. This was set to be a hugely anticipated clash, the perfect amalgamation of politics and football to make a mouth-watering encounter.

The first-half ended in a 0–0 stalemate but no one could have predicted the indelible moment that happened six minutes into the second half.

The ball looped into the air in the penalty box, following a miscued clearance by Steve Hodge, and Peter Shilton came out of his goal to claim the ball. However, an onrushing Diego Maradona jumped into the air and punched the ball with his left hand past Shilton and into the goal to give Argentina a vital 1–0 lead.

The incensed English players swarmed the Tunisian referee, Ali Bin Nasser, protesting his decision to award the goal, but to no avail.

Argentina won the game 2–1 thanks to a sensational, mesmeric individual goal by Maradona, a goal that has since been referred to as ‘The Goal of the Century’, and ultimately went on to defeat West Germany in the final and win the World Cup.

I cannot help but ask though, would that still have happened had there been VAR?

I can already hear murmurs from several people asking me why Frank Lampard’s ghost goal was omitted from this list, but that’s because that revolves around goal line technology and thus is a separate issue.

It is crystal clear based on these cases and many other examples that VAR must remain.

Sure, without it there is a plethora of drama and excitement but having said that, the level of injustices that have occurred are astronomical and completely outweigh those things. Teams have cruelly been denied places in prestigious tournaments, that could have changed their futures for the better, along with places in semi-finals and finals and more importantly silverware.

Those things cannot happen ever again. VAR is an essential ingredient that football has needed for a very long time and must remain regardless of what many fans might think or feel. Yes, referees need to learn how to use it better but the recent game between Melbourne City and Sydney FC in the A-League perfectly illustrates the way in which VAR must be used and applied by referees.

Rhyan Grant, who was initially given a booking for a two-footed tackle, was given his marching orders after the referee, Kurt Ams, checked the pitch side monitor for the replay of the challenge. In addition, an audio feed of the conversation between Ams and the video assistant referee kept the viewers informed about the decision.

Perhaps this is the antidote to the recent VAR debacle that has been a serious headache for fans, players and managers all over the country? The good news is that there is hope for the future.

With the right alterations, we can still enjoy the game all the while having matches that are both fair and balanced.

The 2018 World Cup, which was a fantastic spectacle and arguably the best world cup of the century, is the perfect example of that.

Edits made by Lisa Berrie