VAR (& poll)

Interesting thing George, was that the ref himself did not feel any need to review the incident, as it was a "factual" matter...

...however, the clear reality is that it was just a subjective opinion by the VAR official, overriding the subjective opinion of the official on the field of play, which they were prepared to accept unchallenged.

And illustrates perfectly - not what is wrong VAR - but what is wrong with how it is being applied. That decision - in common with far too many others - completely undermines the authority of both officials.

Long before it was introduced, i made the point that even with multiple angles & slo-mo, having reviewed an incident countless times in the MoTD studio, Shearer & Keown would still hold diametrically opposite views. In which case the refs original decision is as good - equally right/wrong - as any other.

But if VAR cannot even be relied on for 'binary' incidents (in or out, offside, handball etc...), then it really has little or no benefit & risks damaging all confidence in the authorities.

Var is being tarred with the same brush as the new hand ball interpretation.

Go back to the old interpretation and most of the controversial decisions go away.

The offside rule needs tweeking too but as it stands var is getting very few wrong its just that we don't like the idea off being a toe offside.

Jim Baker