Homepage Article The Machines Are Staring At The Wrong Things

[Ed Bottomley]

“So there you are – you can see what it is like. The camera’s hot, probing eye, these monstrous machines and their attendants – a kind of twentieth century torture chamber, that’s what it is.”



That’s a quote from Prime Minister Harold McMillan. In 1962 he opened a Conservative Party broadcast with that candid statement. 



He could just as easily be talking about football’s autocorrect, V.A.R. 



It’s a such an ugly tool for the beautiful game. It fell out of the pedantry and hit every branch on the way down. It can confidently Tipp-Ex out goals by judging people offside by half a pixel, turning a game with rules meant to be adjudicated with the naked eye over to slow motion robotic pedantry. And then there’s the question of how someone can be ruled offside by a millimeter at all anyway – beautifully explained by the massive brained Jonathan Wilson here: “Can anybody tell me if my working is wrong here...

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[Nymzee]

Figured this would be an article on The Matrix.

 

[COYBL25]

 

[blue to the bone]

Up the toffees!

 

[degsy]

He not too wrong though.

 

[Jonte]

Erm, is this some thinly veiled exercise in bigging yourself up ? Hard to tell.

 

[Khalekan]

Continue reading...

Great article.

 

[Blue Roo]

Fair play. Good post

They're screwing up celebrating goals.
Might as well not open the gates as all.

 

[Jimmy Grimble]

Erm, is this some thinly veiled exercise in bigging yourself up ? Hard to tell.

I thought this, although to be fair there’s a couple of half reasonable claims to fame there.


I once scored a peno past emelyn Hughes.

 

[collymcd]

Erm, is this some thinly veiled exercise in bigging yourself up ? Hard to tell.

Weird interpretation that.

Article makes some great points I think. This one is sad: "And then there’s the frustrating delayed orgasm in the stands, as fans don’t know if they should celebrate or not. Eventually, I suppose, they won’t bother at all"

Think that sums up the effect of VAR pretty well. Sucking life out of the game in search of pedantic measurement.

 

[TheBigIguana]

Weird interpretation that.

Article makes some great points I think. This one is sad: "And then there’s the frustrating delayed orgasm in the stands, as fans don’t know if they should celebrate or not. Eventually, I suppose, they won’t bother at all"

Think that sums up the effect of VAR pretty well. Sucking life out of the game in search of pedantic measurement.

Is there any evidence of this though? Like do you have video of a celebration that is muted because the fans are worried about VAR? It looks the same when teams score to me.

 

[collymcd]

Is there any evidence of this though? Like do you have video of a celebration that is muted because the fans are worried about VAR? It looks the same when teams score to me.

You want to VAR the celebrations now too?

It's not supposed to be read literally.

 

[Ed Bottomley]

I think all my blogs are really about bigging myself up to be honest

 

[SerenityNigh]

Well said, it’s a human issue like the rest. I like VAR, although you could expect a Yank to say such. Then again, we apply our Instant Replay with decades more experience and effectiveness than VAR sees. So I’m the end you see technologically enhanced human error. It should get better—when the people in charge make better choices. Not that you can’t still be bitter—ask any New Orleans Saints fan if they’re bitter and most will be quite honest. But VAR should become a useful tool and we’ll accept it soon enough.