Chelsea Blogs

This VAR Lark Is In Danger Of Ruining The Game I Love

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Are we witnessing the slow death of the game we love?

A dramatic opening statement I think you’ll agree!

However, having made such a bold opening statement I’m going to expand and pose a few more questions.

Last night, after a gruelling day doing some house clearing, I sat down to watch the last ten minutes of the Manchester City v Tottenham Hotspur game.

With it balanced at 2-2, I’ll openly admit I was praying for Manchester City to get a late winner and they did but didn’t!

When Jesus slotted home an injury-time goal, the Manchester City players celebrated, the Etihad crowd celebrated and, yes, I celebrated.

But, after the celebrations had died down, it appears the curse that is VAR struck.

The goal was chalked off by an official, sat in a studio somewhere, who with his eagle eye spotted that the ball had struck the arm of a Manchester City player, therefore it was ruled as handball and the goal didn’t count.

Now, nobody wants to see a goal allowed that isn’t, but this VAR logic is, in my opinion ruining football.

And these are the reasons why:

1 – It took an age for the goal to be disallowed and when you look at the footage frame-by-frame, a Tottenham defender clearly pulled the arm of the Manchester City player towards the ball, therefore, in my opinion, the goal should have stood.

2 – The time it took for the decision to come through was far too long and resulted in the flow of the game being interrupted for too long, I accept viewing the action takes time, but does it really take that long?

3 – In future, in order to ensure a correct decision is made, could we reach a scenario whereby goals are not awarded until the VAR officials have given the all-clear thereby removing the spontaneous reactions that make scoring such a unique experience in the ground?

Football needs to flow, we don’t need these constant interruptions whilst replay upon replay is studied, okay there have been bad decisions in the past but didn’t they used to say they evened themselves out over the course of the season?

What are your feelings on VAR?

Feel free to drop your viewpoint into the comment facility beneath this article.

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