Today’s Football 25/26 Season

[SJB]

Agreed mate…
Imagine if VAR had been around when Aguero scored that winning goal late into stoppage time on the last day of the season to win the title for city?!?

When he almost jumped into the crowd to celebrate?! Now imagine if VAR had stopped that so that the pair of tits in the VAR booth could pull out their rulers, and protractors to check if there had been an infringement or something?!

That would have sucked all the life out of the celebration in that moment.

Iconic commentary "I swear you'll never see anything like this ever again" when that goal went in. Thanks to VAR, it's almost certainly true.

 

[Lanolin]

it’s technicalities though mate.

Would anyone have been concerned if the goal was given, and no red card, because technically even after fouling haaland, the goal was scored.

The on field ref had given the goal and wasn’t doing anything else either - that’s where it should have been left, but VAR had to stick their nose in.

The ref could have gave the goal and just booked scrabblsly and haaland for their respective fouls, all good, we get on with var free life.

VAR is a pox on the game, or the way VAR has been implemented and used is, even if technically the decision to disallow the goal and send off the rs was “correct” as you say.

But that's the point in a nutshell isn't it? I'd be happy if VAR didn't exist - I've been vocally against it from before it was introduced - but it does, and because it does I would expect it to do what it's supposed to do. In this case that would be disallow the goal, because ultimately it was scored as a direct result of a very obvious and blatant foul. I think there are loads of situations where you can legitimately say VAR is 'sticking it's nose in' - Keane's sending off against Wolves springs to mind as a recent example - where minor indiscretions are blown up into something they don't need to be because VAR is going looking for it, but I just don't see how this is one of them, it's a blatant foul which prevents someone from clearing the ball before it crosses the line, if VAR's not intervening in that there's a serious issue I think, it's their job to make the 'correct' decision so they can't just say alls well that ends well because it sets a precedent for thousands of other potential issues which could be looked at the same way.

 

[Vaughan]

But it is the same thing in terms of the laws of the game, that's the point. It's not exactly the same thing, but allowing one means you have to allow the other. Either the advantage phase gives you carte blanche to break the rules yourself to even things up or it doesn't, otherwise where do you draw the line? If it had all been part of the same passage of play and just a case of six of one and half a dozen of the other, or if Haaland had gone down from the initial foul and 'accidentally on purpose' taken Szoboszlai out then I'd agree with you, but they're two distinct incidents. Szoboszlai commits a foul, the ref rightly plays advantage to see if Haaland can score but instead he commits his own foul which directly leads to the ball going into the net. I honestly just don't understand the furore at all, I can get how in the moment you might just be like ah let it stand who cares, but once you've had literally a second to think about it I just don't see how there's any argument at all with what happened, it's clearly the correct decision.

he only commits the foul because he was fouled in the first place, on purpose, with his arms pulling his shirt

it was cheating, and szlai should be getting slammed for it

 

[NathDogg]

But that's the point in a nutshell isn't it? I'd be happy if VAR didn't exist - I've been vocally against it from before it was introduced - but it does, and because it does I would expect it to do what it's supposed to do. In this case that would be disallow the goal, because ultimately it was scored as a direct result of a very obvious and blatant foul. I think there are loads of situations where you can legitimately say VAR is 'sticking it's nose in' - Keane's sending off against Wolves springs to mind as a recent example - where minor indiscretions are blown up into something they don't need to be because VAR is going looking for it, but I just don't see how this is one of them, it's a blatant foul which prevents someone from clearing the ball before it crosses the line, if VAR's not intervening in that there's a serious issue I think, it's their job to make the 'correct' decision so they can't just say alls well that ends well because it sets a precedent for thousands of other potential issues which could be looked at the same way.

The point is Var doesn’t do what it’s supposed to do, it buggers up offsides, penalties, red cards the lot, and re refs things that just don’t need to be re-reffed.

Var is completely inconsistent in its application, it’s fundamentally broken.

Var doesn’t intervene when it should and does when it shouldn’t, it’s a joke.

 

[PercyPlant]

This is absolutely brilliant. Seen him do a couple of these and he’s absolutely nailing it.

 

[Lanolin]

he only commits the foul because he was fouled in the first place, on purpose, with his arms pulling his shirt

it was cheating, and szlai should be getting slammed for it

That's a different point though isn't it? Like I said in the first place, I totally understand the point that morally the punishment for Szoboszlai doesn't really fit the crime, but that's the case with dozens of decisions every week. The fact that it's a big game on TV and the last minute doesn't make it special, if the goal stands then this type of thing should be allowed every time and the truth is nobody really wants that to happen.

 

[Lanolin]

The point is Var doesn’t do what it’s supposed to do, it buggers up offsides, penalties, red cards the lot, and re refs things that just don’t need to be re-reffed.

Var is completely inconsistent in its application, it’s fundamentally broken.

Var doesn’t intervene when it should and does when it shouldn’t, it’s a joke.

But again, that's just not the same point is it? I agree that VAR is rubbish, but this particular incident isn't evidence of it so it's daft to try to use it in that way. If anything this is exactly what VAR should used for, spotting clear and obvious errors like not giving a foul when one has clearly been committed. Like I've said a few times, we can't moan about wanting consistency and then also say we want the referee to go rogue and effectively let players do whatever they want as long as we think the outcome works out OK. Much as the idea of players taking things into their own hands and meting out their own forms of justice is appealing in its own way, I don't think we really want to go down that road as a sport, and that's effectively what we're advocating by saying that a goal would be the right decision yesterday.

 

[NathDogg]

But again, that's just not the same point is it? I agree that VAR is rubbish, but this particular incident isn't evidence of it so it's daft to try to use it in that way. If anything this is exactly what VAR should used for, spotting clear and obvious errors like not giving a foul when one has clearly been committed. Like I've said a few times, we can't moan about wanting consistency and then also say we want the referee to go rogue and effectively let players do whatever they want as long as we think the outcome works out OK. Much as the idea of players taking things into their own hands and meting out their own forms of justice is appealing in its own way, I don't think we really want to go down that road as a sport, and that's effectively what we're advocating by saying that a goal would be the right decision yesterday.

It wasn’t a clear and obvious error - he played two advantages - one to city and one to the rs - the ball ended up in the net, so a goal scoring opportunity wasn’t stopped and slobberchops was never getting there so the tit-for-tat foul by haaland didn’t matter anyway. I’m being devils advocate but you get my drift.

one thing that is clear - on field refs are much worse and are making less and less decisions in the game now, knowing that var will/can/should intervene and get them out of any hole there indecision puts them in.

 

[Lanolin]

It wasn’t a clear and obvious error - he played two advantages - one to city and one to the rs - the ball ended up in the net, so a goal scoring opportunity wasn’t stopped and slobberchops was never getting there so the tit-for-tat foul by haaland didn’t matter anyway. I’m being devils advocate but you get my drift.

one thing that is clear - on field refs are much worse and are making less and less decisions in the game now, knowing that var will/can/should intervene and get them out of any hole there indecision puts them in.

Yeah I do get your drift. Personally I think it's the right call under the rules but obviously I wouldn't have cared if they'd given it. Some of the journalists are being massively disingenuous about it though, if it had been allowed there definitely would have been a load of articles about how it was evidently OK to just break the rules with impunity now as long as everyone agreed the end result was fair.

 

[Neiler]

 

[longers]

Vietnam is building the worlds biggest stadium for their football team. It's set to cost around £26 billion and have a 135,000 capacity.

Current record holder is Rungrado stadium in North Korea which holds 114,000 people and the forthcoming Morocco stadium set to hold 115,000

 

[DOMNOLAN]

That's a different point though isn't it? Like I said in the first place, I totally understand the point that morally the punishment for Szoboszlai doesn't really fit the crime, but that's the case with dozens of decisions every week. The fact that it's a big game on TV and the last minute doesn't make it special, if the goal stands then this type of thing should be allowed every time and the truth is nobody really wants that to happen.

Morally? The ball’s going in. He stops a goal from happening (Haaland has to foul him to get back to his original position), easiest red you’ll ever see.

 

[msb]

Tbh, the red card is a better outcome for the league. Their best player of late misses three games. Result was unaffected in terms of points. Win/win.

 

[Lanolin]

Morally? The ball’s going in. He stops a goal from happening (Haaland has to foul him to get back to his original position), easiest red you’ll ever see.

Yes. Morally, preventing a certain goal by cynically fouling somebody, meaning that they only get a free kick 30 yards out and the chance to play against 10 men for 5 seconds instead of a goal should have a different outcome.

 

[Nymzee]

Tbh, the red card is a better outcome for the league. Their best player of late misses three games. Result was unaffected in terms of points. Win/win.

*1 game