Nigel Winterburn: VAR has ruined the ‘moment of magic’ in football
Former Premier League winner Nigel Winterburn has told NewBettingOffers.co.uk that the moment of “magic” in football is diminishing with the way VAR is operating, which is a “big problem” for the Premier League.
VAR is far from being as efficient as it should be
The big problem as a match-going fan is that you never know what’s going on inside the stadium. You’re paying a lot of money to watch a game yet the people watching TV at home know what’s happening before you do. That is a big issue for me.
What do most people do now when they’re inside the stadium and a goal goes in? They look behind them to try and see a TV screen to see if it’s a goal or not. That moment of magic for me is diminishing quite a lot.
VAR is not going to go away, and if you want to look at the stats then it’ll tell you that because of VAR, they are getting more decisions right. But the people controlling it need to look at a more efficient way of using it and I still think that we’re a long way away from that efficiency.
Five-minute VAR checks are ridiculous and I’m pleased I never played with it
Winterburn voiced his frustration at another big problem for VAR – the duration of checks. March saw the longest-ever VAR check in the Premier League, with Tomas Soucek’s late winner for West Ham ruled out after five minutes and 37 seconds – beating a previous record of five minutes.
We’re still in a mess with it. Used in the right way, VAR can still work. But when does VAR intervene? We’re told it’s clear and obvious errors but it’s obviously not. There are a lot of times when they intervene when the error is not clear and obvious, and it’s taking way too long to get to a decision. They will look at a potential offside and decide that it’s alright, but then they’ll see something else in the build-up that could potentially disallow the goal.
They’re taking five minutes plus to come to a decision and that takes away the enjoyment of celebrating a goal. Even players are not really celebrating until after VAR has cleared a goal.
If it’s supposed to be clear and obvious, it shouldn’t take you more than a minute, or a minute and a half to make that decision. When it’s taking three, four, five minutes… that to me is where it becomes ridiculous.
I’m pleased I didn’t play when VAR existed.
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