The problem is that, had we not had VAR, none of the unseemly behaviour would have happened,
The elbow early on in the match should have been seen by the AR for what it was and she should have helped the referee because it should have been a red.
The same AR did not raise her flag for offside, as instructed, in the move for the England goal, however, she raised the flag once the ball was in the net, thus bringing in a VAR judgement ---without VAR, presumably she would have flagged earlier and the goal would not have stood.
Likewise, the Cameroon goal which was disallowed by VAR was never flagged and that also would have stood.
The referee, in both cases, had to wait for the VAR judgement coming through and was then stuck with Cameroon players who just did not want to accept the ruling and the referee, not VAR, was left to explain exactly what had happened and to say that the game would continue.
I think that the VAR rulings badly affected the confidence of the onfield officials because after those incidents they missed several things including the penalty incident and the assault on Steph Houghton.
It is difficult for any of us who have not been involved in the use of VAR to say exactly how we would feel if we had been officiating in the match. We can criticise until the cows come home, however, the problems in that match were caused by the use of VAR and its quest to be 100% correct. Had things been left to the onfield officials, particularly the offside decisions, I do not think that things would have degenerated as they did.
The officials were selected because of their ability in normal circumstances and they do not become poor overnight.
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