Copyright dailymail
One of the many negative side-effects of the ongoing use of VAR is that the concept of a referee’s decision being final is no more. Remember that one? The referee makes a call, a few players wave their arms around, a manager moans on TV afterwards and then we all move on to the next game. When viewed in the rear view mirror, that state of play everyone used to moan about now feels like some kind of nirvana. A gift left behind in another time. Instead we now live in a football world where nothing is good enough and no complaint is too late or too loud. A referee’s on field decision is not deemed acceptable until it’s been verified by some men in a van in a car park in west London. But they have been found to be human too so we don’t madly trust them either. And that has led us to here, to a place where a club like Liverpool feels compelled to contact the Premier League about a decision that involves a nuanced and subjective interpretation of the offside law. For what it’s worth, I think it’s a ridiculous and self-defeating move. If a mistake was made by referee Chris Kavanagh and his extended team at the Etihad on Sunday, it cannot really be proven. This isn’t a ‘ball over the line’ kind of thing. It’s an opinion kind of thing and, as such, is best left alone. Was Andy Robertson impeding the Manchester City goalkeeper as he ducked to allow Virgil van Dijk’s header to pass over him and in to the goal? Well only Gianluigi Donnarumma really knows that. Maybe Liverpool intend to call him as witness. Equally, I find it hard to damn Liverpool quite as unequivocally as maybe I once would. Once upon a time I would have been all over this move as the exercise in grand standing, weight throwing and blame shifting that it arguably is. Now? It’s just another club acting in a way that others – such as Arsenal, Aston Villa and Nottingham Forest - have done before them. This is the modern culture of the sport and the environment in which our big clubs now think, act and talk. Liverpool’s stance is that this is not a complaint, rather them raising a concern as Howard Webb and referees body PGMOL have encouraged clubs to do. Fair enough. But is this one really a hill to die on? To our clubs, no decision is now deemed too insignificant or too marginal to feel utterly aggrieved by. Perspective is gone. VAR introduced to us all a vision of perfection that was always unattainable but that was sold as the ultimate end game nevertheless. And now that we are not there, everybody needs somebody to shout at. VAR inconsistencies are maddening. The concept of a high bar for intervention by the video officials appears to reside in the bin already. Yesterday’s City penalty, for example, should never have been given. The evidence for doing so was just not strong enough. So our match officials – on field and in the VAR hub – have some improving to do. But welcome back to the reality, boys and girls. This is football and mistakes will be made. Liverpool’s observations are fatuous and should be treated as such. But this is the environment created by an ill-judged push for perfect and common sense is the principal victim.
