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VAR: Sponsored by Chelsea

r-u-s-x said:
I disagree, refing in practice has always been done on precedent rather than the letter of the law. Trying to ref on the letter of the law has just highlighted that this was the case.
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As I said - it's highlighted what was wrong.
 
r-u-s-x said:
Why - its in essence common law and works well in the majority of cases - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Common_law - People know /knew what is acceptable and if you have the rules in black and white that people find loopholes to take advantage of it. Look at the new handball rule, you will see players boot the ball at the players hands as the rule is now explicit.
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the most important thing, the only important thing imo, is consistency
 
Glenda's Legs said:
https://twitter.com/x/status/1148134352913620992

So according to this tweet (I don't have a Times subscription to get behind the paywall), there will be no pitch side reviews in the PL either. Is that for everything or just in relation to handball incidents? Sounds like for everything. Meaning more decisions will be made by the VAR rather than the on-pitch referee. Whether or not that's a good thing is a separate debate, but it's not how VAR is supposed to work at the moment.
How much latitude should individual leagues have?

Edit - in fact this is not even the league making the call, it's the referees' association.
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Some quotes from: English game will be lenient on handball – Mike Riley

“There are still areas of interpretation around the way the new handball has been written — effectively what you consider to be an unnatural position of hands and arms.

“In this country we have always said — and this is the players and managers saying it to us — that arms are part of the game and as long as you are not trying to extend your body to block a shot then there is more scope so that we don’t penalise.

“What we don’t want to create is a culture when defenders have to defend with their hands behind their back or where it is acceptable for attackers to try to drill the ball at their hand to win a penalty.

“We have worked to our guidelines for the last three or four seasons and by and large, people accept that’s the interpretation we apply and I don’t think that changes next season.”
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“Sissoko’s a really interesting one,” Riley said. “In real time it looks a clear penalty. With VAR you can actually see what he’s doing, and he’s not interested in trying to block the cross, he’s saying to the covering defender, ‘Get over there and fill the space.’

“That’s not a deliberate act of extending the arm away from the body. You also see the ball deflects off the chest on to the arm, and if you put everything together and apply the philosophy we do here, we wouldn’t say that was handball.”
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“On a Premier League weekend you can expect a review twice in every ten games,” he said. “About once each game we have to complete a check but that average delay is 20 seconds, and is usually completed by the time the goal celebration is over.

“We have said the referee should not go to the pitchside monitor unless the VAR’s decision is completely out from what he expects.

“There have been examples at the Women’s World Cup, really subjective decisions, where it has taken three or four minutes and you can avoid all that as long as the advice the VAR has given you is something that the referee expects.”

“Where you have to be careful is to not use VAR to re-referee the game. You have to trust the people out there on the field of play as the players do.

“What you also don’t want to do, particularly in our game, is to disrupt the intensity or the flow of the match.”
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“It is the most fundamental change in the game that has happened in my lifetime,” he said. “If you go to cricket, if you go to rugby union and rugby league, it took them between five and ten years to get it in a way that they think it really enhances their sport.”
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VAR is broken. Fixing it requires better referees. But if you had better referees, why have VAR in the first place?

The referees are tools.
 
A few clarifications on how VAR will be implemented in the PL next season.
Good to see that (at most grounds) screens will show overturned decisions. I think it would be useful to also show unchanged decisions, where the game has been stopped for referee review.

Re offside, I think it may take a while for players to not at least slow down or stutter in a run when they see a flag raised, but I suppose they will soon adjust to playing to the whistle (which is what they should be doing anyway).
I'm not sure about limiting it to the so-called 'attacking phase' - I'd like to see a few more examples of implementation.

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THST board member Martin Buhagiar represented the Trust at a VAR session that detailed how the system will work in the Premier League next season. The event was hosted by Premier League Productions, at Stockley Park, Uxbridge - the venue where Video Assistant Referees will be based during games when the new season kicks off.
https://www.thstofficial.com/thst-news/thst-attends-premier-league-var-session

From August 9th VAR will be used in the PL for “clear and obvious errors” or “serious missed incidents”.
This will be applied in four match-changing situations:
  • Goals
  • Direct red cards
  • Penalties
  • Mistaken identity
VAR will automatically check these situations as a matter of course – no signal is needed by the referee. However, the final decision will always be taken by the referee who has been told to maintain the pace and tempo of Premier League matches.
The PL accepts it will not achieve 100 per cent accuracy but believes it will increase Key Match Incident accuracy which is currently at 82 per cent.

One of the biggest changes to what has previously been seen with VAR will be offsides. For example, with some offside decisions you will see the flag raised but play allowed to continue. This will be an obvious change from UEFA/Fifa where officials were advised to keep their flags down until a decision had been made.

For clear immediate goalscoring chances an assistant referee will raise the flag as normal, the referee will delay the whistle until the match outcome and VAR will then check.

VAR will use 3D lines to determine offside positions. We were given a demonstration of this and it is accurate to the point that it would be hard to argue against. Players have been told they must play to the whistle.

With regards to how far back VAR will go - there is no time limit. However, the PL wants to minimise the amount of time used on VAR so the term ‘attacking phase of play’ is important here.

There are a number of factors to consider:
  • The attacking phase of play is a move that leads directly to a goal
  • The defending team gaining possession is important in these terms
  • The ability of the defence to ‘re-set’ is taken into consideration
  • Immediate, not multiple phases, are checked

So for example, Naby Keita’s goal away against Southampton would not be overturned by VAR. In the build-up to that goal Mo Salah is clearly offside and this is missed by the assistant referee. The game continues and a cross is cleared by the home side. Liverpool regain possession and it is at this point it is believed Southampton’s defence has re-set. Liverpool score from the next cross. Therefore, when the ball eventually hits the back of the net, it is agreed the Mo Salah offside did not directly lead to the goal, the defending team had cleared the ball and re-set and Liverpool had then scored.

With penalties, VAR intervention will be used for:
  • Clear errors on goalkeeper movement by on-field officials – by clear they mean excessive early movement before the kick has been taken
  • Double touch by players taking the kick
  • Feigning at the point of the kick
  • Encroachment that has a direct impact on the outcome of the kick – the example given here was Jan Vertonghen’s goal-line clearance versus Arsenal after Aubameyang had missed the penalty. After further questioning by the THST rep, it was agreed that the penalty would have been overturned anyway with the player booked for diving and a freekick given to Spurs.
The handballs seen in the Champions League, particularly the Tottenham – Emirates Marketing Project game (Danny Rose), the PSG – Manchester United game (Presnel Kimpembe), and Tottenham – Liverpool game (Moussa Sissoko) would not be deemed by the PL VAR as handball. The PL uses a different interpretation of the handball rule to UEFA.

The rule to be introduced in the Premier League states that a player should not be penalised if they are believed to be using their arms for balance or in this case, where the player is gesticulating to team-mates to cover a rival player.

As Mike Riley, General Manager of PGMOL, said at the time of the Sissoko handball: "That’s not a deliberate act of extending the arm away from the body. You also see the ball deflects off the chest on to the arm, and if you put everything together and apply the philosophy we do here, we wouldn’t say that was handball."

For ‘not seen’ incidents (off the ball elbows, punches etc) there will be a VAR window to intervene. When the ball is in play, this will be at the next re-start and when the ball is out of play, this will be the second re-start.

Referees will also be less likely to view the pitch-side monitor to make a decision as their Video Assistant Referee will also be a Premier League official who will advise on what they have seen via the slow motion and many angled replays.

For match-attending fans, overturned VAR decisions will be shown on in-stadium screens with the exception of Old Trafford (Manchester United) and Anfield (Liverpool) where there are no screens. At these stadiums the scoreboards and electronic advertising boards can be used to advise fans that a VAR check is underway, when a conclusion has been reached and what that decision is.

Every goal scored in the Premier League will be automatically checked as a matter of course with a view that the process will be completed before the celebrations have been concluded.

Players will not be booked for simply requesting that VAR checks an incident, but unique incidents may see players cautioned. For example, if a player politely requests that an incident is viewed a referee can explain the situation to him. However, if a player runs half the length of the pitch gesticulating that VAR should investigate, this will likely lead to a yellow card. Clubs have been told.

Players will be booked if they attempt to enter a Referee Review Area on their own or for interfering with referee communication.

The PL has set a high bar for clear and obvious error before a change has been made to the original decision. It says VAR will not completely remove controversy over subjective decisions. The tackle by Emirates Marketing Project captain Vincent Kompany on Liverpool’s Mo Salah at the Eithad Stadium was given as an example of this. Many felt Kompany should have been sent off but VAR would have allowed the yellow card to stand.
 
The handballs seen in the Champions League, particularly the Tottenham – Emirates Marketing Project game (Danny Rose), the PSG – Manchester United game (Presnel Kimpembe), and Tottenham – Liverpool game (Moussa Sissoko) would not be deemed by the PL VAR as handball. The PL uses a different interpretation of the handball rule to UEFA.
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This is painful.
 
Glenda's Legs said:
One of the biggest changes to what has previously been seen with VAR will be offsides. For example, with some offside decisions you will see the flag raised but play allowed to continue. This will be an obvious change from UEFA/Fifa where officials were advised to keep their flags down until a decision had been made.

For clear immediate goalscoring chances an assistant referee will raise the flag as normal, the referee will delay the whistle until the match outcome and VAR will then check.
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So sometimes the referee will whistle when the flag goes up and sometimes he won't? We'll have to wait and see how this pans out but it sounds like a recipe for chaos and confusion, and not just for the players. The big question being at what point does the ref conclude it is a clear and immediate goalscoring chance? Surely there is going to be a lot of controversy around that? There are bound to be occasions when he will be perceived as having blown too soon, thus infuriatng players and fans of the attacking side.

Since every goal scored will be reviewed automatically by the VAR why introduce the risk of preventing a legitimate goal by, say, a flagging error from the lino or a misjudgement by the referee?

Crazy!
 
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