HOT TAKE THURSDAY

A new series where I'll give you my weekly football hot take.

Forget the balanced punditry and the safe, measured opinions you find everywhere else. This blog is the corner of the internet where I call it like I see it, no matter how controversial. I’m here to challenge the narratives, question the legends, and say the things you’re thinking but might be too polite to type out. So, buckle up. Our first hot take is coming in hot...

HOT TAKE OF THE WEEK : We need MORE VAR & not less of it

This is going to ruffle some feathers, but I strongly believe we need more usage of the VAR. See, the problem with VAR isn’t the technology; it’s our timid, half-hearted implementation of it. The constant complaints about “killing the spontaneous joy” and “over-complicating the game” are just noise from those resistant to change. If we are truly serious about “getting decisions right,” then we must go all the way. As a fan, there are not many worse things than getting an unlawful decision against your team. It leaves you with a bitter taste in your mouth. Having to deal with the constant question of “What if the refs got the decision spot on?” long after the final whistle is far from ideal. We need a system that checks every major decision, with clarity and transparency, just like they do in rugby. This isn’t about slowing the game down; it’s about sanctifying its fairness.

Why is the current VAR is a half-measure disaster?

At the moment, VAR functions similarly to a fire alarm that only occasionally sounds when there is smoke present. It is contradictory, unclear, and causes more controversy than it resolves. The “high bar” for intervention coupled with the secretive and selective process in a room is the core of the problem. That has since changed in some of the leagues in world football, but the rest of the leagues need to embrace transparency.

Previously, players would score, celebrate, and then have their goal chalked off three minutes later for a fractional, debatable offside after the referee had been whispered to by a mysterious voice in the control room. That model created a lingering sense of injustice. With the introduction of the semi-automated refereeing system, offsides have been clearer. At least now there’s no reliance on human refs drawing lines and risking the possibility of getting it wrong.

Oh, and what about their favorite buzzword, “clear and obvious error,” the most damaging phrase in football? It’s a subjective get-out-of-jail-free card that allows officials to avoid making difficult calls. A foul is a foul. Offside is offside. There is no “clear and obvious” threshold for factual decisions. By checking everything, we remove this cop-out. The decision is either right or wrong, and the technology exists to determine that.

VAR used differently could actually be faster and feel like it. Think about it; the longest delays currently happen when the VAR is unsure whether to intervene. They spend minutes poring over an incident, trying to decide if it meets their “high bar.” If the protocol was to review every penalty shout, every potential red card, and every goal-scoring incident as a matter of course, the process would become streamlined. Automated offside technology is already speeding up one part of the game. A dedicated TV Match Official for football, in constant communication with the ref, could process these checks in real-time, often before play has even restarted.

I can hear the traditionalists now: “You’ll have a stoppage every two minutes! The game will become a sterile, stop-start mess!” However, this misinterprets the idea. Stopping the game for every small incident is not the goal of the new approach. It involves cooperation between the TV match official and the referee. In 90% of cases, the TV match official can radio, “Check complete, no foul, play on,” without the spectators even realizing it. The referee would only publicly halt play and announce the review during significant, game-changing moments. Compared to the existing paradigm, which has us all standing around waiting and not understanding what’s going on, this is more efficient.

My two cents

The fear that technology is holding football back is a little irrational. We celebrate goals that shouldn’t stand and fume over defeats gifted by human error, all in the name of protecting a flawed, “human” version of the game. But the players are faster, the stakes are higher, and the margins are smaller than ever before. The goal of implementing a thorough, open VAR system modeled after rugby is to establish justice as its cornerstone, not to eradicate passion. The goal is to make sure that, after ninety minutes, the players on the field determine the outcome rather than a referee’s quick error.

Let’s not skirt the problem any longer. If we think that justice is important, let’s have the guts to go after it.