Premier, VAR creates controversy after Tottenham-Chelsea

VAR has struck again. Tottenham-Chelsea, the derby with 5 goals disallowed, two sent off and 23 minutes of added time won 4-1 by the Blues, was the perfect ending (depending on your point of view) to a weekend in which the electronic eye is definitively over in the eye of the storm. “I think we are all frustrated by VAR. But this is the football we wanted, with technology, and now we can’t complain,” said Mauricio Pochettino, recalling when the unanimity of the Premier coaches pushed for the use of slow motion in field. The same one that is criticized from all sides today, the one that the Times in one of his Sunday editorials he called it “a farce that must end”.

wait

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The 23 minutes of added time in the London derby which marked the end of Tottenham’s unbeaten run were mainly due to the wait for controls on the 5 disallowed goals. The review that canceled out Sterling’s possible 1-1 goal and converted it into a penalty for Chelsea with Romero’s decisive sending off lasted more than 5 minutes. Referee Oliver and his staff first reviewed the goal action, then two other dubious situations in the penalty area before deciding. This long wait without understanding exactly what is happening is the thing that most annoys the Premier environment: on the huge big screens of the Tottenham Stadium at every check an explanation of what was being reviewed (“Possible penalty”, “Possible touch of hand” appeared). , “Possible violent play”) and once the decision was made, images of the offending episode were shown, but the fans of both teams loudly booed every review, with chants calling for the abolition of VAR. “I don’t like all of it this wait, I would prefer to play football rather than wait for things I can’t control” said Ange Postecoglou in the belly of the Tottenham Stadium.

utopia

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Postecoglou, with his good-natured way of saying things that never makes him seem angry, also talks about another aspect of the VAR controversies: the role of the referee. “I think that in the search for the utopia of a match without refereeing errors, a utopia that doesn’t exist, we are diminishing the role of the referees. I grew up with the idea of ​​respecting decisions on the pitch, that the referee was like a policeman, always in control of the match. But these referees are no longer in control of the game and their authority is constantly undermined by philosophical analyzes of everything they do. I would like to go back, to accept the decisions of the race directors, but maybe I’m too old. Football is going in this direction, a direction that I don’t like: now we ask for more transparency, I’m sure that the next step will be to give the referees a microphone and ask them to explain the decisions, as happens in other sports.”

missteps

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If Newcastle-Arsenal on Saturday had been VAR’s nightmare, with the decisive goal controlled for three different actions and in the end validated due to the lack of conclusive images that led to his training (it also means that, if the decision on the pitch had been to cancel the goal, would have been confirmed for the same reason), Tottenham-Chelsea was a sort of demonstration of the excess that can be achieved with the electronic eye. Because the 5 disallowed goals took time to verify, as did other decisions on the pitch. Postecoglou’s note about referees not being in control of the match and players and coaches at the mercy of decisions made kilometers away from the stadium, in the Premier League’s Replay Center, is one of the things that most angers the world of English football. As Pochettino recalled, however, the request for slow motion on the pitch was unanimous, and now that the VAR is there it’s a question of finding a way to make it work better. “It’s difficult to find a balance, but this football with technology is what we wanted and what we have to help improve,” said the Chelsea manager. The first step could be to realize that the utopia described by Postecoglou, the world of perfect matches without refereeing errors, does not exist. The problem is that this is what the Premier League was convinced it had when it asked for and obtained the use of slow motion on the pitch.