{"id":17837,"date":"2026-02-01T20:13:49","date_gmt":"2026-02-01T20:13:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/?p=17837"},"modified":"2026-02-01T20:13:49","modified_gmt":"2026-02-01T20:13:49","slug":"var-are-lengthy-decisions-ruining-games-as-a-spectacle","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/?p=17837","title":{"rendered":"VAR: Are lengthy decisions ruining games as a spectacle?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p>\n<div>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Tammy Abraham thought he had a dream goal on his second debut for <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.com\/sport\/football\/teams\/aston-villa\" class=\"ssrcss-ckhpdl-InlineLink e1kn3p7n0\">Aston Villa<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Four minutes after he had celebrated the goal it was ruled out on a VAR review.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.com\/sport\/football\/teams\/aston-villa\" class=\"ssrcss-ckhpdl-InlineLink e1kn3p7n0\">Aston Villa<\/a> have good reason to feel aggrieved.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Nineteen seconds is a long time to go back to disallow a goal in the Premier League. The ball was right by the corner flag at the opposite end of the pitch.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">A very long time in fact \u2013 the furthest the VAR has ever gone back in the attacking phase.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Then there is the nature of the review itself. Did the VAR, Paul Tierney, really have conclusive proof the whole of the ball was over the line?<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Cast your mind back to November 2023.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.com\/sport\/football\/teams\/newcastle-united\" class=\"ssrcss-ckhpdl-InlineLink e1kn3p7n0\">Newcastle United<\/a> scored a goal against <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.com\/sport\/football\/teams\/arsenal\" class=\"ssrcss-ckhpdl-InlineLink e1kn3p7n0\">Arsenal<\/a> and after a lengthy VAR review it was allowed to stand.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">The VAR felt he did not have proof that Joe Willock had failed to keep the ball in play. Part of the problem was there was no camera directly on the line to show the curvature of the ball relative to the line.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Can we say Leon Bailey definitely failed to keep the ball in?<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">It looks like the ball was probably out. But probably shouldn&#8217;t be enough for the VAR to rule out the goal.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;I have to accept the referee&#8217;s decision but I think it isn&#8217;t fair,&#8221; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.com\/sport\/football\/teams\/aston-villa\" class=\"ssrcss-ckhpdl-InlineLink e1kn3p7n0\">Aston Villa<\/a> boss Unai Emery said after the game.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">You can see his point. Even <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.com\/sport\/football\/teams\/brentford\" class=\"ssrcss-ckhpdl-InlineLink e1kn3p7n0\">Brentford<\/a> boss Keith Andrews said he had not &#8220;seen conclusive proof&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">But Andrews added: &#8220;It&#8217;s the million dollar question [if fair to call it back so far] but it&#8217;s the same phase of play. I&#8217;m comfortable.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Danny Murphy felt the decision emphasised his point on how much VAR takes away from the game.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;If you are <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.com\/sport\/football\/teams\/aston-villa\" class=\"ssrcss-ckhpdl-InlineLink e1kn3p7n0\">Aston Villa<\/a>, and that happened to you the other way round, then you would be saying the ball had gone out of play,&#8221; Murphy said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;But it goes back to what I originally said. Is it about getting the right decisions, or is it about the good of the game?&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Correct decision? Probably.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Correct for the VAR to intervene? Probably not.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>#VAR #lengthy #decisions #ruining #games #spectacle<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Tammy Abraham thought he had a&hellip; <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":17838,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[242],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17837"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=17837"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17837\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/17838"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=17837"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=17837"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=17837"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}