I think im against VAR.

When I watch Rotherham I am basically in a state of acceptance about the official's decisions. Fans outside the Prem tend to moan often about the referee in terms of the refs' inconsistency or bias, but it is quite rare that one hears about a hugely controversial decision. On reflection whether or not VAR corrects more things than it gets wrong it still doesn't feel right to me.

The offside issue will never be cleared up because there can never be a truly objective decision that satisfies everyone. No matter where you draw the line its still going to cause controversy because it remains feeling based for many people.

Even if one were to believe that technology can measure a billionth of a millimetre we would not be able to see it and the joy of the goal would be erased as well as the goal itself. There would be neither objective nor subjective justice. Not objective because we cannot verify it ever and not subjective because lots of our decisions are not based on facts and for very good reason. The reason is that facts coincide and are multiples of various occurrences. How can anyone feel that a fabulous move ending in a fabulous goal is removed because of such ineffective measurements? After all, offside is multipurpose but it can be argued that it need not be part of the game at all. Remove offside and the problem has gone and no-one can seriously argue that football without an offside rule would spoil any feature of the game except to say it would offend the historic nature of the rules. The argument that the game would become a stretched mess of meaningless long balls is easy to make but it doesn't mean that teams would leave a striker in the 18-yard box all game long any more than having an offside rule means one never deviates from a particular formation.

do read this excellent article ( spartacus-educational.com/Ftactics.htm) about historic changes that would cause many to go apoplectic if anything like this had happened, yet it has and does still happen. so getting rid of offside altogether is not a silly or radical as some may think. In our lifetime we have seen the offside rule amended along with substitutions, injury time, tackles from behind, professional foul, etc but has the game lost any of its appeal. No! However, VAR is perhaps the only thing I can remember that has caused and will continue to cause sheer joy to be continually sucked out of the game and in its place leave a fog of uncertainty and eventual apathy.

I would have much rather seen what I consider a more human form of improvement while not expecting infallibility by introducing a referee in both halves of the field and also 2 running the line. Of course, if we did away with offside then one would be more than sufficient.



The only exception I would make would be goal-line technology