by Snowflake Royal »
24 Jun 2019 18:10
Sanguine Hoop Blah
Football's laws are, at least in my opinion, a lot more subjective than those other sports too.
This remains a red herring, in my view. If football is a subjective game then VAR or not it remains subject to the opinion of the referee in many decisions that the officials make. VAR doesn't change that, it just allows the officials the opportunity to review replays and multiple angles to come to a better subjective decision. That you might argue the decision reached is still up for debate isn't a failure of the system.
We saw the best and worst of VAR in England's game with Cameroon yesterday - to my mind the referee arrived at the correct decision in all but the final incident (this is the good), the tackle on Steph Houghton, but I suspect there was a big dose of diplomacy in that yellow card, and I'm more perplexed at the incidents that weren't referred by VAR, including the fourth minute elbow (the bad). It also took far too long again - as in most games I watch where VAR is being used, the replays have already been shown multiples times on TV often before the referee sees it again, or even signals the check. Not playing all incidents on the screen in the stadium only antagonised the Cameroon players, too.
My personal view was that the elbow was an misjudged arm across the chest that rode up and hit the face rather than actual violent conduct, so I was just about ok with the yellow.
I think it was clear the officials had seen it, so I'm presuming VAR decided that was a fair interpretation.
On the Kirby pen shout, it wasn't VAR that took ages, it was the ref thinking and watching the replays. She could have cut that time dramatically herself. Personally I thought it was a foul, but a fair advantage played given we then got a shot at goal.
I don't think the Cameroon players got upset because the decisions weren't on screen. They got upset because they WERE on screen and felt Duggan should have been called off and that the butt of a heel when walking away from goal in the build up shouldn't be called off. I think they were also (justifiably) upset that a loose control and claim by the keeper was called a free kick that they conceded the first goal to.
The final yellow, I've mixed views on. You can give the benefit and say it's just poorly timed, or you can say it's cynical and nasty. It wasn't a clear leg breaker though, more a nasty rake.