Premier League pledge to improve VAR

Thank you Lyndon for keeping us Evertonians from afar in the picture with your remarkably informative website. Also a huge shout out for the ToffeeWeb podcast which is a fantastic lifeline for at least this otherwise dispossessed Evertonian lost in the deepest Hudson Vally N.Y.

Give us back our game and our enjoyment of it. Spontaneity is everything and we've been completely robbed of it.

I hate it with a passion. Ruining football almost as much as the PL itself.

As comedian/statistician Andy Zaltzman said “Statistics are like a ventriloquist's dummy. Shove your hand far enough up them, and you can make them say whatever you like. Although only children and idiots will take any notice”.

Bin it, it's killing the game. Decisions are still as subjective as ever.

The intrinsic problem isn't the length of time that the VAR review takes, but that the VARs make the WRONG decisions based on the "facts they see" even though they double or triple check them.

And that's clear to everyone except the EPL and PGMOL.

It literally makes no sense to say something is not working but then leave it to fail and affect results each week. But then the Premier League and sense have long since parted ways as we know.

Never wanted VAR and still don't - was always a disaster waiting to happen. Get rid asap. It's still a ref making a subjective decision based on what he sees - doesn't matter whether thats on the pitch or in a little portacabin packed with TV screens miles away. Might as well let the ref on the pitch make the call, as you still get just as much controversy with VAR and replays to make decisions from.

Two people could watch 50 slow motion replays of an on-filed incident and still have different takes on it. That's why VAR doesn't work for anything that isn't a clear Yes/No call (such as was the ball over the line).

The refs are getting protected by stupid controversial shows like ref-watch, and people like Dermot Gallagher, are making a fortune, for giving an “opinion” that counts as much as an everyday supporter, but nothing more.

I think it's time for them to stop talking about transparency, and to start giving transparency instead.

What is Tony Scholes background in relation to football,is he similar to Mr. Masters of the premier league who doesn't appear to have any previous background in football before he was handed the job after three people turned the position down.

The richest league in the world run by people who don't seem to understand football.

However, I think that VAR technology may still be beneficial to use retrospectively to punish players who may have "gotten away with it" during the match. That would mean that they may trick the officials on the day, but there could still be a day of reckoning to follow.

Unfortunately VAR was designed for TV. It creates talking points, keeps people glued to screens and extends post match analysis and debate. That keeps viewers and sponsors interested and at the end of the day that's the bottom line for a business devoted to maximising revenue. I fear we will never be rid of it. F#ck VAR.

VAR isn't the issue. It will never be 100% but what ever will be?

But it can see what see what all of us see be that at the stadium or in the comfort of our living room watching Sky.

I keep banging on about it. The issue is the people making decisions, who, as you say, don't seem to understand football.

Get it on the screens and make them explain their decisions.

Interview them after matches. Make them accountable.

Likewise Masters and his cronies in their cigar smoking London Gentleman's cigar smoking club patting themselves in self-praise.

I really want him to sit next to me at a match.

Apologies. We're approaching match day and I'm getting emotive.

I love Everton, and I have always loved football, but I rarely watch it on the television anymore, and after giving Goodison a wide-berth this season, until the death of a man, who I believe was instrumental in ripping the soul out of our club, I was genuinely enjoying watching Morecombe, playing in league two, and wasn't even missing watching Everton.

The premier league, has been marketed in a fantastic way, but the game has become far to cynical and sinister imo, and sometimes it genuinely makes me feel like i'm watching a cheat's paradise, and wonder how many so called legacy fans, have similar feelings to myself?

In spite of this, I am still enjoying going to Goodison, but I did leave the ground last week feeling very frustrated, whilst going over in my head, how it took over three minutes to give us our second equalizer? FUCKING WHY!???

The same happened in the first half with our first goal as well and yet the VAR decision for the first Spurs goal was checked and complete by the time their players had got back to the half way line.

If you have the replay every which way why does the VAR official refer it back to the referee on the field ??? It's ridiculous and just serves as a total waste of time.

When Beto was impeded twice against Spurs last week the referee wasn't interested, why, because he is not keyed in to the kind of tricks professional players use. In each case the defender clearly played the man and not the ball. Had they been ground level challenges then they may have been penalized, who knows.

My point is that many referees are not trained properly on how the game is played and they still miss a lot.

Why doesn't the league kick out this stupid offside rule in which the lines persons don't flag immediately. Another inane rule.

I'd rather a player get's time to cool off rather than risk being booked or sent off.

Obviously depending on the severity of the offence.

I'm not sure we need another card. Just send the player to the dugout for 10 minutes.

I thought this might benefit us as every throw we take seems to end up back with Pickford. Then I remembered the quality of our passing.

It is all down to money where the tail is wagging the dog. If it is to help the referees, why not have two referees, one in each half?

We have goal-line technology, that cleared 1 major problem and the only other thing that should be covered is the severity of the fouls.

The biggest controversy at the moment is the offside, other people like ex-referees may be more knowledgeable, but wasn't the Law that there had to be two players, including the keeper ahead of or level with the attacker for him not to be offside, not the size of his boot or any other similar parts of his anatomy.

The VAR is there to help the money people, and where there is money, there is corruption. It is not wrong to have technology, it is wrong to have it at a level where the human eye can't follow it.

Offside is offside no matter what level of football you watch, deciding it at just 1 level is against the principles of the game, especially if it is being used by someone who is not even at the game.

I do however attend matches in the EFL and below on the blank weekends when there is no Everton match. My last one was Harrogate v Swindon in November. It was a 1-1 draw, very entertaining and all the better for being free of VAR. The officials, including Sian Massey-Ellis on the line, were clearly on top of the game and appeared confident in their decision making.

I contend VAR has made referees at the so-called elite level worse. I don't blame them. It's like having someone at work looking over your shoulder watching your every move. It undermines self-confidence.

So many decisions are matters of judgement in which one person's opinion may well differ from another's. We see this in much post-match analysis in which former players offer quite different perspectives on incidents. Chasing 100% accuracy is a waste of energy and time.

I don't care if the opponent player's knob is offside or not, if the linesman can't see it then so be it, get on with the ******* game.

I hate VAR with a passion! Don't get me started on the blue card!!! They will probably have the offending player sit on the naughty step for 10 mins like my mother used to do!! Rant over.

There was traffic jams everywhere but luckily for us we got there just on time, to see him score in the second minute, and after putting in a very good performance (even for a critic liking me) and turned out to be a massive turning point in his career so far.

He has just signed for Millwall, on a very good contract last week, and even though we had took him to football for years, it was a very nice feeling watching him come of age, that night at Harrogate Town.

Christine, get home girl, and when you drive over that little brow on Boundary street, heading towards the dock road, I'm absolutely certain you will fall in love with the new Goodison, especially because it's near your old neighborhood, and even more so when you realize that the location, is going to help turn us back into the City's number one team🤞

Tony (30) I wish your lad all the luck in the world. Millwall is a tough place for any opposition but the home fans stick with their team through thick and thin.

The VAR is also fine with me. Some strange decisions, or corruption when applied to only Everton, but moreso the vagueness of the rules is a bigger problem in my opinion.

I will definitely miss going to Morecambe, because it was hassle-free and only used to take me around an hour to get there, and there also seems to be a lot more honesty in the lower leagues.

The referees still get it wrong, and still seem to favour the bigger clubs, but there doesn't seem to be so much of an agenda, and it's also very refreshing watching players behaving with a lot more honesty.

I have obviously watched a lot of Premier League games, and quite a few games in Leagues One and Two over the last 18 months so, if he takes his chance, I will be looking forward to watching a lot of Championship football.

I watched a little clip of Mathew Le Tisier saying how happy he was when the VAR was introduced, because he believed it would help the smaller clubs get some key decisions, citing his unhappy experiences of having stonewall penalties denied at the likes of Arsenal, Liverpool and Man Utd.

He then went on to say, instead of it getting better, it's actually got considerably worse, giving some good examples of why he thinks things haven't improved, whilst speaking full of common-sense, imo.

I really hope you are in a big minority here as, otherwise, the game I love is dead in the water.

How can this improve the spectacle of a decent football game. The current system of a player receiving a yellow card that leaves them on tenterhooks, is a sufficient deterrent to continue foul play.

For me, there is now too much interference in the rules in the Premier League's quest to tamper with the ‘beautiful game‘ and brings about more controversy than it solves rule breaches.

The other thing with the blue card is it will be used for dissent and times when players confront referees. Well, these type of situations, particularly involving Man Utd and Liverpool, tend to involve several people berating, pushing and shoving the ref. So will they all get a blue card?

And how does that work if say 6 get blue cards at once – can the game continue or do they forfeit because they have too few players on the field?

In reality, we know what will happen. Nothing in these situations with these teams. Instead, Pickford will probably be the first person to get a blue card for time-wasting. But there again, what happens if your goalie is blue-carded?

Does an outfield player wear the goalie shirt for 10 minutes? Can you sub on a goalie for an outfielder? Then, if you do that, you're stuck with two goalies once Pickford comes back from the sin bin.

How about instead of jacking around with the rules they actually just firmly establish rules and keep them the same and hire and fire referees and VARs based on their correct enforcement of the rules?

All these annual tweaks in interpretation just muddy the waters to where none of the fans or players understand the rules so referees get away with having one rule for Salah and Bruno Fernandes and a different rule for everyone else.

Whatever happens, it's the vagueness of those rules, which Shane mentioned, that need to become a lot clearer; otherwise, people are still going to be feeling like there is a certain level of corruption within the modern game.

I said ages ago they'd mess the VAR up (and they did). I was even lightly admonished by one of our esteemed transatlantic correspondents to - get with the (modern 21st Century) program.

How many times have they tweaked it to fix it… two? … three? … more? Is it any better? No, it's worse.

They'll fuck this blue card thing up too.

You beat me to it, as I was going to ask what would happen if a goalkeeper got a blue card?

My own opinion would be that it probably won't apply to goalkeepers, it will simply be a red card for them. But then say you've made all five subs, and your goalkeeper is then sent off, and an outfield player has to go in goal, and he is sin-binned for 10 minutes, or as I've already said, would he then be exempt from a blue card because he's now in goal?

Another question is how to they time the 10 minutes. Is it just literally you're off for 10? In which case if your rivals delay free kicks, goal kicks, corners, feign injury and bring on subs, actual playing time might just be a few minutes while you're absent. On the other hand, if you rely on refs to add extra time for subs, goals, time wasting, then we get into the realm of 10 minutes being 15 or 20 minutes, although for time wasting more of your mates maybe be joining you in the sin bin.

It just sounds like a recipe for disaster

What next? Blue cards for supporters in the crowd, for singing, chanting, cheering, booing, and clapping.

We have reached the point of ridiculousness. Remember who started it!

I meant I'm happy with the idea of VAR but for the reasons I've stated, it's not working well enough.

Anthony, I'm not sure what you're referring to.

Loads of good questions on the blue card. Again, it's a good idea but definitely open to creating other unintended problems.

Sorry, the thought of them improving anything makes me laugh

If five or six players are involved, they should all be sent off and the result awarded to their opponents. That should soon put a stop to such behaviour.

For me, the issue of dissent is an easy one to deal with. It is however one which the sport has never really got to grips with at any level.

If it all kicks off in the first 20 minutes and let's say for argument's sake 5 players get carded and the game is awarded to the opposition, then what about the paying fans who've shelled out a decent amount of money to watch a game of football?

I suggest a new rule in which the players will be fined the amount required to reimburse fans for the price of their ticket plus £1 for every mile they live from Goodison Park to cover travelling expenses. That should focus minds. And keep lawyers and accountants busy.

VAR should be a solution. 100%? Of course not.

Fix the rules. Fix the raised nature towards certain clubs. Get competent officials who understand football. And get the video assistants out of Stockley Park and in the stadiums.

In other news, I'm going to see my brother-in-law in hospital the next time I'm up. By then he will have had open heart surgery.

He has just turned down my offer to bring him an Everton t-shirt, but he does support them!

Maybe we could have VAR interventions for blue cards, maybe a game will soon be two hours long but with plenty of debating points for the pundits and more time for advert breaks to sell us shit we don't need.

Maybe these terrible ideas all form part of the re-packaging of football as it becomes a streaming entertainment rather than a visceral sport to be experienced. Chasing the money as always, nothing to do with the game.

Whatever was the reason for the alteration of the offside law? Players A & B could be standing shoulder to shoulder, but because A takes size 9s and B takes size 8s, A is ruled offside.

When it comes to VAR, I would prefer to see a referee make a mistake at Goodison Park, rather than two or three VAR officials 200 miles away, poring for 3 or 4 minutes to make the very same mistake.

I thought that one of the rules that was already there but now not ever used was that if a player 'persistently is guilty of fouling an opponent' he gets a yellow card. When did you last see the Man Utd 39 get a Yellow for this? There are others that this applies to. Too numerous to mention.

Dissent. Yellow. Time-wasting (except Pickford who frequently gets one) Yellow. I could go on but I won't. Just get on and use the rules that are already there. You don't need new ones.