How VAR Has Affected the Results of Championships This Season

VAR has been one of the most discussed topics in the world of football ever since its implementation. Theoretically, the goal of VAR is to eliminate potential mistakes by the referees and make sure that each game has maximum fair play. 

These decisions often mean that some goals will be disallowed and thus, the scores can change dramatically. This season has had quite a lot of those events and that led fans to believe that VAR is doing more harm than good for football. 

VAR Is Supposed To Eliminate Any Potential Mistakes

Thanks to the fact that referees can look at replays of certain events. That way, they eliminate the randomness of a football game and make sure that mistakes never occur. The idea is to make the game as fair as possible. 

The big critics, however, lie in the fact that the randomness is actually what made the game so exciting and passionate. Nowadays, players can’t even score without second-guessing the goal itself. Right after scoring, they often stop to see whether there’s been an offside, possible foul, or any other type of foul play. 

The lack of passion and emotion makes the game far more unattractive. People believe that this is what led to the decline in popularity of football in recent years. As a result, many clubs are looking to implement new rules to make it more attractive. One of the proposed solutions was the Super League, which was quickly overturned. 

Randomness is what brings passion to many other games, not just football. Let’s take the entertainment industry as an example, specifically online casino games such as roulette. They’re powered by RNGs which create random outcomes for each betting round. 

That means that not every outcome will be in your favour, but that’s what makes the game fun to play. You never know what you can expect from it. Yes, you can learn roulette tips and strategies, but they don’t offer any guarantee that you’ll end up victorious. 

Arsenal Might Had the Worst Experience with VAR So Far

Arsenal has had three overturns by VAR this year. One of the worst ones was against Bournemouth on October 19. William Saliba was sent off after denying a near-certain goal foul on Evanilson. Not only that, but he received a red card for the tackle. 

The major controversy in this tackle was the fact that a similar event took place next week when Chelsea played against Liverpool. Diogo Jota was fouled in a similar by Tosin. However, he didn’t receive a red card for the tackle, even though the referee ruled it a foul. 

Both tackles took place at the centre of the court, without any players left to the goal. Saliba got a red card, but Tosin received a yellow card only. On November 10, Kai Havertz’s goal was disallowed for offside and as such, the game ended 1-1.

Lewandowski’s Infamous Offside Against Real Sociedad

Barcelona was playing against Real Sociedad on November 11 and the game finished 1-0. Sociedad managed to win, which was a big surprise for everyone. The main takeaway from the game was the disallowed goal by Robert Lewandowski. 

After a VAR decision, it was ruled offside, but here’s where the big controversy occurs. The VAR screen showed Lewandowski’s foot just millimetres in offside, but the catch is that it wasn’t his foot that was offside. In fact, Lewa was actually in the green zone as Nayef Aguerd’s foot was in front of his. This had a major impact on the game as it was just starting. 

• Game starts 
• Lewandowski’s goal disallowed in minute 13
• Becker scores for Sociedad in 33’
• Flick brings on Fati, Gavi and Victor P. in the second half 
• The changes in the forward make no impact 
• Barca loses the game

Barca’s whole team was left fuming and the club later demanded answers from the Spanish Football Federation (RFEF). This decision ruined Barca’s plan to go nine points ahead of everybody on the table and further capitalize on Real Madrid’s under-average performance this season. 

Manchester United Suffered Against West Ham

The last of the controversial decisions that we’ll mention is the one against Manchester United when they were playing against West Ham. United were 2-1 down and were seeking to even the score, but Matthijs de Ligt fouled Danny Ings in the box and thus, a penalty was being considered for West Ham. 

Even though the referee didn’t originally give the penalty, he went on to consult with VAR, which deemed that the contact was sufficient to award a penalty. Ten Hag stated that the decision was anything but real and that that was the third time the team suffered injustice. Chronologically looking, Manchester United is among the most penalised teams in the Premier League due to VAR decisions.

Research was done in mid-November and it showed that Manchester United would’ve been two positions higher if the bad decisions by VAR didn’t affect the result. The top of the table would’ve looked something like this.