The main issue last night was that while by the letter of the law, Sotirio was coming from an offside position and interfered with play, it wasn’t a clear and obvious error. If it were “obvious” then the commentators for example would have picked it up when the VAR were reviewing it, but they couldn’t work out why the VAR were even reviewing it in the first place. Therefore the VAR shouldn’t have intervened.
When the VAR was first put in I was taking the optimistic view that it might be a positive change that sees poor refereeing decisions overturned but it’s doing just the opposite. When we scored the first goal last night, I was paranoid that the VAR were going to overturn it while the lights were flashing. It’s just ruining the awesome feeling of celebrating a goal when in the back of your head you’re wondering if it might be overturned.
Sorry dude, but that’s nonsense. VAR has the ability to review every goal, they reviewed it and chalked it off according to the laws of the game. The rules are clear on the point of an offside player affecting someone else trying to play the ball, it’s nothing to do with it being “enough” of a foul, therefore it WAS a clear and obvious error by both the referee and linesman who should’ve called it.
Just because the boffins at Fox don’t know the rules and are outraged doesn’t mean VAR should turn a blind eye. I mean, Jesus, imagine using rocket surgeons like Speedy & Bozza as the barometer.
Fuck me if that’s where the game is heading. They’re commentators, not match officials. Should Ben Wilson be giving expert commentary on a Wanderers player blasting over from 12yds or the defensive mismatch of Rhyan Grant & Oriel Riera in an aerial duel?
Law 11.2 - Offside Offence:
** A player in an offside position at the moment the ball is played or touched* by a team-mate is only penalised on becoming involved in active play by:
interfering with play by playing or touching a ball passed or touched by a team-mate or
interfering with an opponent by:
preventing an opponent from playing or being able to play the ball by clearly obstructing the opponent’s line of vision or
challenging an opponent for the ball or
*The first point of contact of the ‘play’ or ‘touch’ of the ball should be used
clearly attempting to play a ball which is close when this action impacts on an opponent or
making an obvious action which clearly impacts on the ability of an opponent to play the ball**
Sotirio interfered with play coming back from an offside position and in doing so gained WSW an advantage. That is offside.
It was clear as day, I even called it in the ground, and it was correctly picked up on review. Chris Beath even explained his decision post match yet these “commentators” still don’t think the decision is right. Maybe they should go and sit the course prior to commenting on any more refereeing decisions.
100%
Speed has no idea at the best of times.
That said, even he said something about the ‘pick & roll’ on Zullo as soon as it happened, but then seemed to just rail against the decision anyway.
Bosnich is literally there to rant, yell and shake his fist at clouds. It’s an extremely transparent act to generate viral content, and it absolutely works when you trawl social media. If it wasn’t VAR it would be something else.
The referee should not be involved in the decision. If it is clear and obvious they should be told over the headset and rule it accordingly. The run to the sideline and look at a screen is absurd.
It has to be like NRL and decisions need to be discussed live.
Yeah I keep seeing “VAR is killing Australian football and makes the league bad we will never be as good as other leagues with VAR” People forget its stuffing up everywhere
Also ignores that there have been two hilariously obvious handballs that led to goals in the Premier League in the past two weeks.
VAR has for the most part been an improvement. I have (had before it became apparent that Mark Bosnich actually runs the game in this country) confidence that major fuckups will get caught now in a way I didn’t before it was brought in. They just need to make it less visible. Against WSW we waited minutes for the restart after our goals when there was no suggestion of any problem. Just run it in the background and it’ll be fine.
Was not saying either. Was saying it was horrific when it started but got better as time went on and thats really all the best we can hope for with VAR.
DRS is a good call. It’s not an option that’s been seriously discussed, but I think VAR should be implemented similarly. I don’t think it should be a voice from above, that appears seemingly at its whim. It should be up to the party that feels aggrieved to make that appeal, and similar to DRS to have a limited number of appeals to stop frivolous abuse.
This is because the call for video is all about “we feel aggrieved” or “we’ve been wronged” and there is no appeal, and what VAR is for is to shut the whinging the fuck up.
Make it up to the plaintiff coach/captain to call for VAR, apply it at the next stoppage and leave it at that. Make it scarce and precious so they don’t just use it to take the sting out of the game. I’d prefer that to the current voice from above.
But really, just don’t have it at all.
I hate sports giving a limited number of reviews to participants. It shifts the burden of officiating onto the players and means good or bad judgement in choosing when to use your reviews can decide a match. An obvious and fixable error should never be allowed to stand just because all reviews have been used. It should be incumbent on the officials to ensure calls are correct.
