VAR - love it or hate it - keep it or let is go - what to do next?

SINCE its introduction to the Premier League for the beginning of the 2019-2020 season VAR has been controversial, due to numerous high-profile errors undermining its utilisation, but the recent costly mistake in the Tottenham-Liverpool game has potentially brought the issue to a head.

Liverpool had a perfectly good Luis Diaz goal chalked off due to a complete breakdown in communication between the referee and his video assistant referee, which ended up greatly contributing to Liverpool’s late loss that day.

Afterwards Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp demanded a replay although that was never likely given that such a precedent would be chaotic for the game, but even Spurs boss Ange Postecoglou stated that he would like to banish the VAR system "in its current form", despite the fact that it was his side who benefitted from the error.

Asked whether he would get rid of VAR, the Spurs manager said: "I would, in its current form. I just don't think that technology's ready for our game."

"I just think with VAR at the moment, we think it's going to eliminate errors and the more we use it, I think the worse it's going to get. It was there for the clear and obvious error. 

"It seems like everything now, yellow cards, fouls, corners, everything's getting scrutinised. It's not our game.

"We're not rugby, we don't have those stoppages. What I always loved about England was the frenetic pace of football. Why are we trying to take that out?

“I don't think the technology in its current form is suitable to our game, but I know I will be in a minority with that."

Postecoglou is not the only manager to express misgivings with the system, as Chelsea manager Mauricio Pochettino offered the opinion that he "trusts in the car but it is the driver that is the problem".

The problem with VAR, and the technology that is utilises, is that it requires humans to interpret it. 

Unfortunately, once you introduce an element of human understanding and judgement the whole system inevitably collapses like a house of cards.

VAR, or its equivalent, works really well in other sports. Take rugby as an example. 

The TMO (television match official) and the referee work together to come to the correct decision. 

This system was in place years before football took the plunge. They had a template to borrow off of, yet they managed to mess it up completely.

In football the officials seem less motivated with coming to the correct decision than they are with covering the on-field referee’s back. They ignore clear mistakes under the “it wasn’t a clear and obvious error” umbrella, which is effectively a cop out in terms of making the correct call. 

Either VAR is there to ensure that correct decisions are made, or it’s not.

VAR has failed as a tool to eradicate refereeing mistakes from the game. It has, however, succeeded in removing the joy from the sport.

Any goal that is now scored that might be touch and go in terms of being offside can no longer be celebrated in the moment. Fans are supposed to erupt in ecstasy when their team scores, but not anymore. 

They have to wait an age for all the various checks to be carried out. 

How we long for the days when you just had to give a quick nervous glance towards the linesman’s flag before losing the plot.

If VAR were to be removed from the game in the morning errors by officials would inevitably increase, but given the number of errors that the VAR officials are currently making you would have to wonder would these errors actually increase by that much.

The game now appears to be at a crossroads in terms of which direction it is going to go regarding the use of VAR.

Instead of limping along making tiny tweaks to how VAR is implemented, what football needs right now is a VAR timeout. 

Remove VAR from the sport for a trial period of three months or so, and at the end of this period everyone can then have a think about which version of the sport they prefer.

At that point they can decide whether they want VAR to come back in, or whether they would prefer the game to flow more, accepting that the game will be more susceptible to human errors.

I already know what option I would be opting for.