Even when VAR seemingly gets the decision right, it still seems to piss off a lot of people. Liverpool's game against Crystal Palace yesterday was the perfect example.
James Tomkins scored in the opening half to give the home side the lead, but the goal would be reviewed by the VAR official. It soon became clear that the Palace man had bundled over Dejan Lovren in his attempts to get to the ball, with the goal rightly ruled out.
Even though this was a fairly clear foul it didn't stop some people complaining about the technology's influence.
More VAR bollocks. 🤦🏻♂️
— Gary Lineker 💙💛 (@GaryLineker) November 23, 2019
It is fair to say that VAR has not been a success in the Premier League, especially when you consider the impact it has had on those in the stadium. Match going supporters have been treated as an afterthought.
While television viewers can watch the process in making these decisions, those in the stadiums have been left in the dark.
That is set to change somewhat next month, with chief of referees Mike Reilly revealing that more information will be given to the supporters during a VAR check.
The Independent report that whereas big screens in the stadium would previously just read 'Checking Penalty', they will now give the reason for the delay. For example, it would now say 'Checking Penalty – Possible Handball’.
This would be a small, but welcome, change. Reilly said that improving the experience of those in the stadium is a major priority.
We are trying constantly to balance the accurate decision-making and the benefits we get from that, with not impacting adversely on the fans’ and player experience in the stadium.
We are acutely conscious we don’t want stoppages of three minutes if we can avoid it, but at the same time when you end up with three or four offside events leading up to a goal, we have to get that right...
We are all in the same place which is ‘let’s try and improve the experience of fans in the stadium and improve the information we provide’, because the more we do that, the more we get everybody’s engagement.
