VAR is not the problem
The issue is those who are using video assistance and making decisions without any common sense. This is a referee problem.
The incompetence at this level of the game is bad for European Football. The referees always get away with it with no repercussions. The players, the managers & the clubs will pay for their mistakes while these referees just move on to the next match.
Until the referees are held accountable for their decisions this sport is not enjoyable to watch anymore. If they find the job difficult then find someone who is capable of doing the job.
The state of refereeing now is so so bad that I t might not even be wild to speculate that this seems to be a planned execution by the referees association to discredit the use of video assistance, so the game will go back to being played the old way where their decision is the final and they don’t have to refer to a third party.
How difficult can it be to make a decision with the help of VAR ? It has to be such a useful a tool. It makes no sense as to why it’s being implemented so poorly.
I honestly would be in full support of AI to replace these humans who seem completely incapable of using their common sense.
It’s hard to justify talking time to watch this sport when someone’s lack of common sense can completely ruin the competition & fun in football.
The biggest issue is the fans/ media. We create a negative perception of refs based on less than 1% of their decisions, and many of these decisions are still subjective.
You simply can’t have half the fans saying a specific decision was bad but the other half fine with it.
The only way to get consistency with refereeing decisions is to remove any subjectivity. But how do you fully remove opinion on decisions from a sport as dynamic as football?
Ball hits hand in area - penalty, no matter how unfair or ludicrous it is. Remove any nuance.
Studs up foul - red. Remove any nuance.
They appear to moving towards these 2 examples, much like they already do in ucl (mostly). Of course there are many other instances that can not be simplified.
Fans - no. Fans love the game and are seeing it slip away. It’s not the fans.
Media - bang on. They are fighting for their jobs and careers, they need to stay relevant, they do so by saying we don’t know anything about football, they know.