Ashley Hammond

Senior Reporter

YES

The worry is that VAR will lead to rugby-style pauses in play, but we already sit there waiting while players roll around on the floor faking injuries, so we may as well wait for the correct decision as well. We’ll get used to these pauses and in time they will become quicker and less controversial as all parties get more accustomed to the technology. A couple of seconds, maximum a minute or so, isn’t much to pay for getting it right. Football is a major business now and international football is equally as political. There are literally millions of pounds riding on games, with half the world watching. This notion that mistakes or debatable decisions add to the legend and mythology of the game simply doesn’t wash anymore. You have to get it right. Every other sport has embraced technology, so it’s time football comes out from the dark ages. Surely everyone would rather see the correct winner fairly advance and often the only way to determine that is through VAR. It’s only used in situations surrounding goals, red cards, penalties and mistaken identity. How often does that become an issue in a game, and how often are you expecting to see it called into practice? It isn’t often, but when it does need to be put to use its priceless, potentially changing the course of sports history. Can we sacrifice a minute or so for that? I think we should. What’s telling is that everyone is making a huge fuss about this delay, but no-one has made anywhere near the same noise regarding the real threat to our game over the past 20 years, and that is time-wasting, diving and the faking of injuries by prima donna cheats.

Matthew Smith

Deputy Editor — Sports

NO

It is all well and good wanting to get every refereeing decision correct in the interest of fair play, but this system is not the solution.

If anything it can make the game more unfair as there is a clear inconsistency in when officials choose to refer to their video assistant referee.

Take Chelsea’s recent FA Cup match against Norwich City, when Mike Jones, the VAR, failed to flag up a potential penalty to the Blues in extra-time.

Willian was booked for going down under a challenge from Canaries keeper Timm Klose. It was a clear penalty and yet neither the ref nor his telly-watching assistant thought it was worth a second look.

As Chelsea boss Antonio Conte said: “If we want to use a new system, I can’t accept a big mistake. The Willian penalty was a big, big mistake. Not from the referee on the pitch, who took quickly a decision to book Willian and didn’t have any doubt, but from the person watching the game. I hope the VAR wasn’t a referee because if you see that watching on television and don’t think that’s a penalty … he has to improve. It was very clear.

We need to improve if we want to use this new system.”

This is on top of the stop-start effect the referrals have on the game. The constant ‘going upstairs’ does unduly interrupt the flow of matches and seems to be slowly turning into American football with its frequent interruptions to the play. 
What next? Advert breaks every time we check with the video ref?

Let’s just leave the beautiful game they way it is and allow for referees’ occasional human error as part of the sport.