Remember the tales that VAR "killed the emotion" of the sport. Did you see the Korean reaction to the VAR review? You would forget that both teams were going home on the same day.
There have been 24 penalties awarded at the tournament so far. There have been 0 for diving. Tell me the last tournament when you couldn't win a penalty for diving in the box.
Officials are also punishing shirt pulls, pushes, and handball cases, far more than they used to. Nigeria had two games where shirt pulling has resulted in penalties. One for them, one against them. Just as well Skrtel isn't playing. Players are now reminded at set plays by refs, what the consequences of fouling their marker is.
Goals have been wrongly scored and ruled out for offside. With VAR, those decisions can and have been, corrected inside 60 seconds max. (even if the broadcasters take their time to provide replays) Without it, we can be talking about them years later, and the decision is still wrong.
You can tell me Ronaldo should have walked for elbowgate. Another player got the same card for the same offence in the group stage, so action is being taken. I can tell you that without VAR, both would have gone unseen and unpunished.
We play the mancs in December. Our players will be pulled and pushed and dragged and scythed up and down that pitch for 90 minutes, and nothing is going to be done about it, because we're not allowed. That's just the home game, let alone the annual injustices meted out in the away game. What was it, two penalties not given last season? If they were given and scored, that would have been a 6 point swing and we would probably have finished second. But they weren't, and instead it was described in the media as a "Mourinho masterclass". Unfortunately we have more of the same awaiting us in February. It's so predictable, you know it now.
The outcome of VAR is fairer results. Going back to stone age refereeing as we have to, (when we're done next season by Moss and Friend and Pawson and their linos), is a shambles. If it was me, I would get the clubs round asap for another vote. We have the resources now to get things right. If France Spain Italy and Germany are able to use it, our team's league should not be left behind.
« Last Edit: Jun 28, 2018 10:55:28 pm by lfc across the water »
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