“Every VAR and refereeing error so far in the premier league season.”
That was the headline on the ESPN football page when I logged on earlier this week.
It nicely sums up what I fervently believe to be the single biggest problem we face in the game in 2025.
Whilst it was only referring to one league on one small island in Northern Europe, we have to accept that it is the highest profile league in the world and probably attracts the largest television audiences world wide each week and has the most journalists employed writing and commenting on the game.
Therefore, I conclude that it is only a matter of time before this sort of analysis is heaped upon the A-League or anywhere around the globe that has gone with the current trend of allowing technology to take over the adjudication of the game.
I am not here to argue the pros and cons of VAR. We all know them and we discuss them ad nauseam on forums such as this; on podcasts and perhaps even when we meet up to watch or discuss the game we love.
My concern is that the discussion of the game has moved away from how good or poor a team’s performance was, or how spectacular a goal was; what injuries arose from a match to who has been sacked or appointed to a new club, who is looking for a new club and what difference “player Z” might make to the fortunes of the team we support. It is now a focus on how the game is adjudicated and who makes the decisions.
I maintain that you cannot logically say “and today’s person in charge is John Smith” as that is simply no longer the case. Sure he makes some decisions and ultimately he is the person who calls time and appears to make the decisions. However, he is no longer the organ grinder, but more the monkey that provides the entertainment and has everyone shouting at him.
I have argued the case that the game is about entertainment and if it doesn’t entertain then you begin to lose fans. It is all well and good arguing that everyone needs to support a team and become a rusted on fan but on the other hand we talk about value for money, difficult economic times and therefore the sport has to surely earn its income and not presume it has a right to millions of fans across the world.
There is an argument that suggests that with professional teams and so much at stake, the game requires as much technology and help as possible in order to ensure that the results are genuine and not contrived and that everyone gets a fair go.
Adam Kersey sends off Zinedine Machach (Photo by Brendon Thorne/Getty Images)
However, that comes undone in the blink of an eye if you analyse the total errors made by the combined efforts of on-field officials and VAR; so where are we at?
The game is slipping away from the very people it is supposed to serve. The game where two teams attempted to kick a piece of leather approximately 110 metres to get it to nestle in between three sticks has all but gone. We can no longer cheer and sing and dance when the ball ends up where we are willing it to go to, even though we look at the assistant and see no flag raised.
We are forced to wait for some considerable time before some digital deity raises or lowers his thumb in true Roman emperor style. We watch players run into offside positions and receive the ball but the assistant keeps the flag down and allows the digital deity to make the ruling instead.
We sit and stand inside stadiums wondering what on earth is going on in the game as the referee holds up play whilst receiving his latest set of instructions and even though he is supposed to share that superior knowledge with the fans, it is either unintelligible or drowned out by the club’s mascots or adverts ringing out around the ground.
Spontaneity is dead; there is now time to visit the bathroom, grab a drink and a bite to eat or watch an advert or two before a decision is reached…. maybe the game does lend itself to commercial breaks after all.
When we were kids we used to throw down a few jumpers or jackets for posts and start a game and it usually ended when the owner of the ball had to go home for tea.
I think I prefer that approach, or at least to be able to watch a game where we can laugh at some of the errors the players make, groan when a referee makes what we think of as a wrong decision, cheer when the ball hits the back of the net or utter a few expletives when we can see it crossed the line but the referee waves play on and keep telling the assistant to keep up with play.
When the final whistle goes, we all accept whatever happened and we talk it over and replay it in our heads over a schooner or two.
It’s unlikely that at the professional level we will ever return to those days and as one wise Roar contributor from Queensland reminded me recently, we brought this upon ourselves.
Oh the shame!
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