It has been a very tough start to the 2023-24 Premier League season for VAR (video assistant referee) and the officials on the pitch.
Every match week, there have been controversial decisions that have brought increased scrutiny to the league, which is widely considered to be the best in the world. But with fans, players, and coaches questioning decisions–made by referees on the field and in the VAR booth–and the media also dedicating valuable inches to the issue, calls have been getting louder for VAR to be hugely changed or scrapped altogether.
Former Premier League referee Jeff Winter recently spoke to OLBG about recent match weeks, and he was damning with his thoughts.
Jamie Carragher is right about slow-motion – tackles look worse
“Jamie Carragher is dead right. When two players threw themselves in a crunching tackle in the old days, it was considered good for the game and the fans loved it! We’re now, however, slowing everything down and watching players slide into tackles with high velocity, with one foot just above the ball. It’s not necessarily an over-the-top tackle, but it can look like that when it’s slowed down to a freeze-frame. People are saying they don’t want football to be re-refereed, but that’s exactly what’s happening in my opinion!
“VAR, to me, was introduced because pundits were screaming about the amount of mistakes referees were making, but in reality, they weren’t making anywhere near as many as was perceived. VAR was brought in on the back of incidents like Thierry Henry’s handball against Ireland. The match officials had no way of seeing that, and we wanted that sort of thing eradicated. I think VAR is now looking for problems. We’ve all sat in stadiums or in front of a TV screen and wondered what was happening. I was at a game yesterday and there were two penalties in the game and a few more reviews.
“There were 50,000 people sat there waiting for what happened next! The players and managers didn’t have a clue what was happening, either. I think we’ve all overreacted with VAR as football is no longer officiated by a guy in the middle holding a whistle. Referees look confused now. As we know from recent evidence, those in the VAR room can look even more confused!”
Football is turning into CSI with ten angles in slow motion
“Jamie is spot-on. You get one perspective if the ref sees an incident in real-time, but if he misses something and has made an error, then that’s fine. However, when a decision is analyzed from ten different angles in slow motion before a red card comes out, then it’s no longer clear and obvious. If it’s that close to being right or wrong, then that’s the margin for error everyone would accept.
“Football is not a game of chess! It’s a fast, flowing, all-action game. We’re slowing it down to almost a science. I watch CSI programs on TV, and I feel like football is turning into that! Every aspect of a tackle is looked at forensically whilst the fans sit there twiddling their thumbs. I’m not a fan!’
I warned people about VAR because football is unlike cricket and tennis
“I warned everybody to be careful what they wished for 20 years ago! We’ve seen other sports where forms of VAR work, like cricket, tennis, and so on. Those sports, however, are stop-start games, whereas football is all-action. You can have an overruled penalty decision at one end, and due to the pace and skill of modern players, the same thing can happen at the other end 10 seconds later!
“Referees have to disguise themselves for 100 yards without being noticed to the far-end of the field, only to give one in front of the opposition fans! I think we’ve created a monster, but other parts of the world seem to utlise the assets of VAR. At home, however, there seems to be a drama every week. We used to see two pundits arguing about a penalty on a Saturday night, but we’ve now turned almost every televised game into an analysis of VAR! Instead of ridding problems in football, I think VAR has increased them.’
