I know where I was on January the 4th, 2005. I was stood in a pub in Sallynoggin (Co. Dublin) watching Spurs away to Manchester United. Suddenly I was on the wrong end of half a dozen United fans who were braying in my face as ‘that’ Pedro Mendes goal was disallowed. The situation was made somewhat less hairy by the fact I was drinking with Tommy Heffernan*.
*Heffernan was a one-time right back for Spurs – who never made a first team appearance for us, he joined 1977 from Dunleary Celtic. Tom left London in 1979 and went on to make over 150 appearances for Bournemouth.
I’m 6’4″ and a public nuisance, yet stood next to the mountainous Tommy, I must have looked as menacing as Charles Hawtrey. The big man defused the situation effortlessly, and then, with a few other fans who were actually bewildered by the decision of lineman Rob Lewis to keep his flag down, we all agreed that referees should be able to watch the replays everyone else could watch at home.
After decades of watching out of their depth officials miss vital moments entirely, or balance up wrong decisions by making not so craftily favourable calls the other way. Enough was enough.
We now have a situation whereby much of the inherent good that exists in technology is being wiped out by the frequently caricature traffic warden application of it.
The Erik Lamela goal being disallowed stung, but at least that was a digital signal, that didn’t weigh anything up, didn’t apply some nuanced understanding of a rule book to its outcome. One device didn’t completely pass another and so it refused to “bleep” or whatever the correct terminology is.
VAR was supposed to remove human error, instead, it feels as is it has become a magnet for officiating pedantry. The decision making has become laborious, and in yesterday’s game against Watford, on decision took over 3 minutes, yet the added time for that half was only 2 minutes. So that particular fiasco even managed to reduce the duration of the game. Glenn Hoddle in the commentary box for BT Sports spoke of fans being short-changed.
In conclusion, the research and development on VAR clearly isn’t done, and perhaps a lower league might be asked if they would like to help fine tune that process?
It’s only unique in its in ability to understand and quantify it’s own rules. Reason it works in other sports is they don’t have the ambiguity. VAR will work in football, but they have 2 options 1) remove the ambiguity by clear definition (define when a ball is kicked, or what constitutes a red, etc…) Or 2) embrace it, put some tolerance in the rules. That is why goal line tech works, it either crossed the line of didn’t. Very few football rules are as binary as those in other sports. So for me option 2 is only viable one.
I was appalled by coloured football boots.
Levy is the only Spurs chairman in history to sanction red on the kit.
Another first for the bald con man, along with being the only chairman to not make a single signing in a calendar year.
What a guy…
Redschapps said after he was shown the door that he felt the team we had could have kicked on with a few decent signings. Then he said that it’s Levy’s club and he can do what he wants. Poch also made a similar point. Also looks like Jose is in the same boat.
So folks, it’s not ‘your’ club at all, it belongs to a venture capitalist investment company that isn’t concerned at all about building a winning side.
It’s ‘The Great Football Swindle’, the irony is that Woolwich have done exactly the same thing to their fans…
The decline began with selling Walker to Citeh. Trippier stepped up for a couple of seasons and it seemed not such a loss.
Then Dembele was struggling with fitness and nothing was done about replacing him. Levy took a punt on Sissoko to give some depth, he’s done much better recently but was awful for two seasons. Moura and Aurier came in, Moura better of the two but neither are world beaters.
Liverpool only bought to improve the side during the same period and now look at them. A team we beat 4-1 in the 2017-18 season.
ENIC are time wasters, end of story. Anyone who defends their actions is either thick or brainwashed.
Many not renewing next season, I know a couple myself.
Var is generally doing its job well; many complainers just don’t like the offside rule, if something needs changing, change that. Once you’re able to judge a situation according to a magnifiable computerised line, pedantry, necessarily, becomes the name of the game we have to get used to. Removing VAR will only result in less irritation at questionable decisions, if TV replays are also discontinued, as it is the replays which enable us all to ‘know’ for sure (mostly) that a mistake has been made. Replays & Var aren’t going anywhere. Var must progress, along with our attitude towards it.
Adapt or Die.
At the risk of feeding a troll… I believe that the check is conducted very quickly during play. Minimal disruption. And no extra adverts.
Normalization . We are programmed to get used to anything. I remember being upset when seeing Holsten on our shirts for the first time. Not bad compared to the AIA abortion .
Works in other sports. Doesn’t work in football, not because the technology doesn’t work but because football authorities are not clear on the rules and how to implement them. When is it really offside, when if the back actually kicked, what body parts should be reviewed? also “intent” can’t be seen. Commentator the other week suggested that offside should simply have a 6inch tolerance, so unless it’s clear 6inches either way the on field decision stands.
You might get to see players wearing helmets , that or heading the ball will be a Red Card.
It’s a gravy train that won’t stop, its our generations that will suffer the most as younger supporters will get used to it or won’t know any different as time goes by and it becomes the norm…..in 20 years time the game will have changed to be unrecognisable…
Yes East Stand . I said that THFC will never be Successful with ENIC , Levy at the helm , I said it years ago, maybe 10 . When Sugar sold up I was foolishly happy and thought that it would be different, until I was told that it was an INVESTMENT Co.
one of which is currently me…and add me to the list of people that won’t be renewing…I hardly go anymore anyway..
Yes . Goal Line Technology In. Everything else Out .
By people like ENIC…
Sugar once came out with a statement that there was little point in spending Big Money on new players as WHL was more or less full on Matchdays . Levy is the same , Feel sorry for the Supporters who fork out Big Money on ST’s .
Levy is prepared to fund a losing culture, a winning culture is too expensive for the penny pinching bore.
More expectation management of the fans, it goes on and on and on…
It was you Neil . What you said regarding Advertising Time is spot on. Remember The WC played in the USA ? There was talk of having 4 Quarters instead of 2 Halves , thus having extra Advertising Time !!!!! Its easier to not care about Football these days , the Soul is being taken out of it week by week .
The stadium is still pretty much packed out even with the cup reply which is surprising…next season will be more telling if Levy doesn’t spend or we miss out on CL….if anything, they are better off without Europa football as I would’ve thought the seat numbers would be low and we can focus on rebuilding but Levy will want the revenue…advertising and beverages alone probably make it worth while in the Europa for ENIC regardless of the prize money….winning is even less important to them now..
Without a Striker, Son & Moura will end up being burnt and/or injured as well..it baffles me with this “who they gonna buy”, “what happens when Kane is back” loser mentality…
The only way this Farcical Situation will be dissolved is by a Total Boycott by All teams Supporters. I cannot see this happen to be truthful. What Qualifications do the Var People have ? Are they Qualified to tell a Referee their findings ? One of the boys on here wrote a very educational piece on the VAR Con , so until the Supporters stop going to games we will have to live with it .
I was listening to something the other day (what it was I cant remember) and they were saying that in MLS the VAR ref will have a quick look at replays and if they can tell at a glance a mistake has been made will then inform the On field ref. If not the original decision stands. In other words, if it is clear and obvious…
Interesting to see that pro-Manure, biased referee decisions are nothing new.