Bruno Fernandes was ‘broken on the back’ of VAR and ‘getting it right’

Let me tell you something you already know: VAR has institutionalised ignorance and stupidity whilst selling itself as informed and clever. If you somehow didn’t realise that, Saturday’s Brentford v Manchester United game must surely have proved it to you.

But what is VAR really? More than just an extra rule to obey, it has altered the very fabric of the game and installed a dark cloak of fear after every goal is scored, as they scour the footage desperately trying to find a reason to disallow it. And they often find something which ‘proves’ there was a miniscule offside, invisible to the naked eye, that could only be discerned in slow motion. The striker gained no advantage, but nonetheless it’s ruled out. Even though the offside rule was invented to stop a player gaining advantage by being ahead of the ball, not to find a boot ahead of the ball by an inch which doesn’t gain an advantage and can’t even be seen with the naked eye.

Great moments are spoiled by its presence, like when Fulham scored a great headed goal at Aston Villa. Even though it wasn’t disallowed, there was still a wait while it was assessed and that markedly reduces what should have been a great moment. It almost feels like you’ve got to ask if you’re allowed to score. Why do we even allow this intrusion? The rest of football gets by without it; why do the top leagues have to endure a patently flawed system?

It’s put perversion at the game’s core, not fairness. In fact it has clearly made the game less fair. As we typically saw at Brentford, it took three minutes to decide Nathan Collins had not stopped a goalscoring opportunity by pulling Bryan Mbeumo eight yards from goal but nonetheless that it was enough for a penalty yet not enough to qualify as a goalscoring opportunity, so it wasn’t a red card, even though it was a goalscoring opportunity. If that doesn’t illustrate the pathetic nonsense of the system to you, nothing will.

Bruno Fernandes, not the most emotionally stable player at the best of times, was left to think about the enormity of the task ahead. The weight of the occasion was ignored, Fernandes was broken on the back of ‘getting it right’.

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A system designed to help officials has made them palpably worse. Of course it has. They actually look smaller, neutered and pathetic. A weedy Walter on a field of Dennis the Menaces.

I actually feel sorrow for them through my rage. What are they even for now? It looks like they don’t even know. If the guidance is to go with the on-field decision where possible, that doesn’t happen because ‘going with the on-field decision’ means the referee’s performance is being judged in real time, which in turn makes them paranoid they’ll get something wrong, which means they will, which will then make VAR intervene. On Saturday they took five minutes to decide the referee was right in the first place.

It was said that it would fix blatant mistakes, but Sunderland were awarded a dubious free-kick which led to a goal (after the inevitable scrutiny for a miniscule offside). Forest have every reason to think that free-kick should not have been allowed. VAR failed to legitimise contentious decisions and left everyone feeling cheated. Exactly the opposite of what is supposed to happen.

Time and again they won’t rule on things that happen in a phase before a goal but will rule on the goal, thus compounding their inadequacy. Get a free-kick unfairly but when that leads to a goal, it is ruled offside by a knee. Everyone hates it. Dissatisfaction is absolute.

Decisions to correct mistakes are declared to be out of the remit of VAR, as if one phase of football can be divorced from the next. Yet things in their remit are called wrongly or take forever or are against the spirit of the game. And what is handball now? It used to be simple. But now they can’t decide and unfair decisions are made all the time. People have got so used to the confusion that have even stopped questioning it.

That explosion of emotion when a goal is scored has been ruined, the groan of despair has replaced it. And people thought this was a good idea. Every round of games is dominated by terrible VAR and refereeing decisions. The overall standard has obviously dropped with the introduction of VAR. The stats will tell you more decisions are called right, but that’s only because they’ve defined what is correct. The offside knee decision can be called correct but it’s a bad decision.

We’ve lost the soul and heart of football and turned it into a fussy, pathetic and often just as incorrect sport. At Brentford we saw how their actions can affect the result. VAR is altering the table, it’s become that pernicious. And as we see sweating referees wandering the pitch waiting to be told in his ear what to do as the players cool down and risk tearing a muscle, is there a more heinous, tragic and impotent sight in football?

There was nothing wrong with football when various idiots insisted it be introduced. Unquestioningly it’s made the game worse but the money in football is almost entirely from TV and they bloody love it. Football as content provider rather than sport is the new normal. Stay tuned for more of the same coming right up after the break.