13 Dec 2022 20:22:00
The number of times I have heard over the last couple of seasons how including ex players at Stockley Park would help improve VAR decision making and reduce the number of perverse decisions being made. Well tonight's Croatia - Argentina match and the decision on the Argentine penalty decision highlights exactly why with what are subjective decisions ex players are no more likely to come up with the 'correct' decision than anyone else. Roy Keane, Gary Neville, and Ian Wright saying no penalty, Ally McCoist and Lee Dixon saying it was. For what it's worth it was a penalty all day long in my opinion but what this shows is ex players will not necessarily make the decision making process any better
14 Dec 2022 14:12:33
It needs a team of three, majority rule. Ex referee not an active part of PGMOL, ex player/manager and an independent.
As long as all keep up to date with the rules and agreed interpretation then there should be a balanced decision not affected by allegiances.
14 Dec 2022 17:04:32
I don't think you need to be an ex player to understand the game and interpret the rules.if the standard of punditry is anything to go by I'd say keep ex players a mile away from officiating. Most of the ex players turned pundits can barely string a coherent sentence together, let alone be objective or offer any insight. Imagine Wright,McCoist or Savage trying to analyse an ingame decision whilst trying to use a computer and communicate effectively. Terrifying.
14 Dec 2022 17:09:34
Not sure that solves the problem rk, last night you had 1 ex ref and five ex pro players split 3 -3 on whether it was a penalty or not. Personally I would rather scrap VAR and go back to refs making the decision as they see it on the ground but I know that won’t happen.
14 Dec 2022 18:19:01
If you find the right people I think it does and if nothing else it's easier to accept a decision that has been made by at least 2 out of 3 people with no affiliation to anyone on the pitch, especially the massively under qualified people wearing black.
Most of the pundits are either just dim or sensationalist idiots but they are hired for those roles due to those traits because they're considered more entertaining.
There are definitely enough level headed people within football that we don't hear about every week that they could get a couple to sit in a room each week.
14 Dec 2022 23:57:14
I see where you're coming from RK and don't necessarily disagree in principle, but the fact is those making the decisions right now are the most qualified. Now you can dispute the end result in terms of quality and speculate as to whether a different character profile (eg ex pro's) would change that end result, but as some have already pointed out, many decisions are subjective interpretations and so will never please everyone.
I've posted on here before about this but seems appropriate to bring it up again - it baffles me how we (fans, pundits, media etc) are complicit in a culture of cheating and deception in our sport and yet spend so much time criticising officials. Don't get me wrong, they make some howlers, but for every bad decision you can pretty much guarantee there will be 10 clear cases of attempted cheating during an average match. Any other sport would be up in arms, but football is apparently different. The bar is so low now and we all know it, but nobody ever seems to call it out. Change the culture of the sport and 90% of this debate becomes redundant. If only the governing bodies had a backbone eh.
15 Dec 2022 09:24:29
I agree that if the players weren't trying to gain that edge by going down too easy or slyly tryi g to injure opponents then we probably don't need VAR as long as refs grow a pair an don't let noise influence them.
Don't for one minute though think this isn't going on in other sports in some way. Snooker considered to be the most honest sport/game is in turmoil right now, tennis has several players using gamesmanship tactics. Rugby fans are blinkered and show everyone the times that the ref is assertive and players respectful but overlook many instances of foul play in their sport.