Robertson: VAR making people lose love for football
Liverpool left-back Andy Robertson says VAR is diluting the enjoyment of football and, if the technology can’t help officials be consistent with their decisions, he’d rather have it abolished altogether.
“I used to love going to games and just being in that moment of being able to celebrate a goal. That is being taken out of the game a wee bit,” Robertson said, according to The Guardian’s Andy Hunter. “Now you are waiting two or three minutes to see if a goal is onside or offside and for me, if it is that tight, then leave it to whatever decision was originally made.”
Robertson was involved in a VAR-related controversy in added time of Saturday’s trip to Brighton & Hove Albion. Referee Stuart Attwell was instructed to consult the pitchside monitor to check an incident between Robertson and Danny Welbeck and subsequently determined the Liverpool player had kicked the Brighton striker’s boot.
The awarding of the penalty allowed Pascal Gross to salvage a late draw for the home team and led Robertson’s teammate James Milner to question VAR’s influence over matches.
It’s “clear and obvious” we need a serious discussion about VAR. Sure I’m not alone in feeling like they are falling out of love with the game in its current state. pic.twitter.com/5FGgLtqbHs
— James Milner (@JamesMilner) November 28, 2020
Robertson is sure Milner’s opinion is shared widely throughout football.
“A lot of people I have spoken to are not enjoying football as much as they once did because it is constantly in review, constantly on a screen, and you are still not getting the consistency we are looking for,” Robertson said. “I agree with Milly. A lot of footballers and a lot of fans would agree with him, too.
“Football is a great game that we fell in love with, and are still in love with, and it is important we don’t lose that.”
Well that’s pretty emphatic. In a poll of 32,473 people, a massive 86 per cent said football was better without VAR.
I agree entirely. I was a sceptic and the reality is worse than I expected. They promised “minimum intervention for maximum benefit.” Often feels like the reverse pic.twitter.com/V9c8NUfzCZ— Oliver Kay (@OliverKay) November 29, 2020
In addition to the technology dampening emotions, Robertson said similar incidents are being dealt with differently despite the extra time being taken to make decisions. He compared his challenge on Welbeck to tackles on Manchester United’s Marcus Rashford and Wolverhampton Wanderers’ Adama Traore during Sunday’s slate.
“We are just looking for consistency. We believed we would be getting that with VAR and we are not getting it,” he stated. “If we are still discussing referees’ decisions after VAR then I would much rather leave it up to the referee’s naked eye.
“It is much easier to accept mistakes made with the naked eye than when there is so much technology around.”
