RateTheRef

In the grand scheme of things it was insignificant but in terms of trusting VAR for offside it was certainly negative.

in the closing minutes of the City v Villa game Foden ran onto a through ball into the penalty area and blasted the ball into the Villa net.  So far as I could tell there was no flag.  As is always the case VAR checkd and decided tha Foden was offside.  Well it was certainly close and as Foden was coming back from an offside position whilst the ball was being played there was no basis to argue.  A few minutes later a computer generated image was shown on the screen and at home which was labelled offside but showed only Foden’s  arm, below the elbow, to be in an offside position.  The graphic was noticed by the crowd and the players and Foden drew the referee’s attention to the graphic.  As the game had been restarted there was obviously nothing he could do but shrug his shoulders.  I believe the BBC revealed that the wrong graphic had been shown on the screen and had been replaced.  I didn’t see the replacement graphic directly but from what I have seen online they look like ‘old fashiioned’ manually generated images shoiwing Foden to be a few mm offside.  It was very close may well have been offside given the overgenerous estimation of the accuracy of VAR offside technology.

However, it does beg the question as to haw the initial graphic was produced and labelled Offsidf when it cl,early did not show an offside (Unless Foden has a previously unknown deformed right arm and a large growth from his right side.)

In my view most current VAR officials do not have the necessary skill set for the job particularly when it comes to trying to piece together three dimensional scenarios from two dimensional images.  Video Refereeing should only be carried out by specialists and managed separately from on-field referees.  Of course they need refereeinf exerience and a thorough knowledge of the laws but once selected to be VARs that should be their role and they should be then trained appropriately for that.  I would then get rid of the nonsense of sending the referee to the monitor to agree with VAR 99% of the time and the VAR alone should be judged on his/her decision to over rule in all cases, including offsides, only where it is clearly and obvioiusly wrong in the first case.