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Date: 2nd September 2024
The game had entered the fourth minute of extra time.
The score was tied at 1-1.
The home side were camped in their opponents’ area, with corner after corner flying in towards their opponents’ goal.
The ball was cleared, but then lofted back in. The keeper, back-pedalling frantically, leapt up in case he had to touch the ball over the bar, but fortunately for him it just dropped on the top of the net, right by the crossbar. But it looked as if he might have got a glove on it and, despite the goalie’s protest, the referee gave a corner. From it the home side scored the winner. Pandemonium ensued with their supporters delirious with joy at having snatched three points at the death.
Then, that night, on Sportscene, it was shown clearly that the goalkeeper did not touch the ball and therefore a corner should not have been given. All hell broke loose on social media. Every newspaper on Scotland ran with the story the next day on their back pages. The media milked it for everything they could. The furore went on all week. The poor referee pointed out that he thought the ball had been touched over by the goalkeeper and that it was an honest mistake. The football authorities pointed out that as the incident was not in the phase of play that led to the goal, VAR could not be brought into action. Nonetheless, the aggrieved club refused to give in and made a huge fuss about how VAR was supposed to deal with the ‘big decisions’ and this clearly didn’t happen and it was ruining the game. Even the club that had benefited agreed the decision was wrong.
Earlier in the same game, a VAR check for a possible penalty took five minutes. No player had claimed for a penalty and it seemed that this was simply another occasion when the VAR wanted to re-referee the match. The unfortunate on-field referee stood, head bowed in front of the monitor, watching endless re-runs of the incident and talking to the VAR before deciding that it wasn’t a penalty. Fans were screaming at the ref – “don’t you understand the meaning of ‘clear and obvious?’…” Many supporters shook their heads in disbelief and more than one was heard to say, ‘it’s time we got rid of this, it’s ruining the game.’ Actually, they used a lot more swear words than this, but that was the gist of the remarks.
As a result, the football authorities decided that they needed to keep the two biggest clubs in the country happy. VAR was scrapped. Fans still complained, but they preferred watching the game without all the joy being sucked out of it by incomprehensible decisions. Even the referees, secretly, welcomed it as they were then able to referee the game in front of them and were less subject to trial by media. The only people who were unhappy were, of course, those in that self-same media who thrive on creating controversy.
Now of course in real life, this didn’t happen. Or rather it did. At the St Johnstone vs Motherwell match last Saturday. Because it was the Perth Saints against ‘Well, nothing more was said. But if it had happened at an Old Firm match then it is not hard to envisage the above scenario, except that the authorities will not give up on VAR. I have written before that football is the only industry I can think of where the customers’ wishes are so blatantly ignored. All surveys show that fans do not like VAR and would rather put up with genuine errors than suffer the disruption that it causes. When will the powers-that-be listen?
Alastair Blair, Director of Operations, SFSA
This is a personal view and not necessarily reflective of the SFSA.
Posted in: Latest News
Tags: #VAR