Ronaldo swings an arm and catches player in face. Referee reviews and gives Ronaldo a yellow card. Now surely it is either a raised arm in which case it is a red card or it is deemed an accidental contact and no foul. How can referee see the VAR and then give a yellow? Not particularly anti Ronaldo but what is the rule on this?
Me too, ref seems to have made it up as he went along tonight. Visibly shat himself at the screen at the thought of giving Ronny a red!
No foul for me. Iranian player tried it on. Shouldn't even have gone to VAR. It would have been nice to see Ron get a red though.
Straight red for me, never in doubt that the ref would bottle sending one of the tournaments best players off.....had the Iranian done it he would have had the early bath.
This is why VAR is completely pointless. Two people above have both seen the same incident and come to entirely different conclusions. There is no right answer, it's not 2+2=4. It's a subjective decision open to interpretation. But instead of there being no right answer within the context of a fast flowing game of football, we now have to stop that game, look at a video screen and still come to a decision that half the people watching don't agree with. People might give the referee the benefit of the doubt when it's a split-second decision; not so if he's had the chance to see the replays. It's such a bad idea, it has the potential to ruin the sport. The huge appeal of football is the non-stop end to end action (when the game is at its best). A good referee is often said to be one who lets the game flow, who doesn't blow his whistle, who consistently plays advantage. VAR exacerbates the problem of the whistle-happy referee and adds a few minutes watching the telly to the tedium. Biggest backwards step the game could have ever taken. We've broken the game up, slowed it down and given players carte blanche to badger the referee into looking at a video screen. The controversy it's created has appealed to the rubbernecking facet of our personalities, a poor game for VAR is hitting the headlines and making us watch, but we're soon going to get very bored of it taking 5 minutes to come to the wrong decision.
I have always been against any form of technology been used to make any kind of decision. The ref makes a judgement call on what he sees and that should be the end of it. If that call is wrong then tough. We will become so reliant on technology that in years to come the ref will simply be there for the electronic devices decisions to be conveyed to the players. The more dehumanised it becomes the more predictable the result will be. Eventually the bookies may as well predict the outcome of the game beforehand and not go to the inconvenience of actually playing the game.
I see where you are coming from but dont completely agree. I think technology has a place for black and white decisions - such as line decisions - was the ball over the line, was there contact inside the box. You cant claim for example that incidents like the "goal" that Lampard wasnt given against Germany should be allowed to still exist when there is technology to get those right. It probably has a place where simulation is concerned, for example the Neymar dive for a penalty that was overturned, and it definitely has a place for off the ball incidents say if someone kicks someone when the refs attention is elsewhere. Where it is struggling for me is the interpretation decisions There there is still an issue and the delays are definitely a problem - hopefully just teething problems to be sorted but knowing FIFA I am not holding my breath.
Var also has its pluses...I think it is in its infancy (and probably has come a tourno too early) for me there needs to me more rules and better trained officials. Do we also use it more expensively for the dive cheats (pepe with portugal etc ?). Last night we saw the highs and lows....in the portugal game we have the possible sending off and then the iran pen...and in the spain match a delibirate handball by ramos on the edge of the area but the the correct decision for spains goal (offside). I like it overall but they have to decide where they are going with it.
Deliberate foul - justified yellow. But not violent conduct - that would have passed for a friendly greeting in Barnsley Town Centre on a Friday/Saturday night,
I have no problem with goal line technology. That's not VAR. Referee gets a beep in his ear instantly, no looking at a video screen.
Definitely more pluses than minuses for me, but its implementation is still messy and confusing at times.
