Celtic manager Brendan Rodgers has come out with some powerful comments about the damage VAR is doing to football at the moment.
The Bhoys were on the receiving end of a rough midweek call in the UEFA Champions League against Atletico Madrid. Daizen Maeda was harshly sent off after a 50/50 challenge with Mario Hermoso.
And it seems the incident has tipped the scales for Rodgers when it comes to the perception of VAR and how it is being used by officials.
Citing another European example this week, Marcus Rashford’s sending off for Manchester United, Rodgers warned that football is in danger of not feeling like football anymore.
Brendan Rodgers has serious VAR concerns
The Celtic boss said in a media conference on Friday [Celtic FC]: “When it first came out, I was always in favour of something that was for the greater good of the game or if something helps that or makes it better as a spectacle for supporters, then brilliant.
“I felt for Celtic supporters the other night. They have paid hundreds of pounds to travel over to Madrid and you are stuck up in the sky watching the game. You have had a good day in Madrid and you go to the game and after 20-odd minutes one of your players is sent off and that spoils the game. It just absolutely spoils the game.
“I think we are now starting to see it a bit more. I was always cautious to see how the technology worked. The technology is fine but the implementation of that is in doubt. The more I see it, I watched the game after and I saw Marcus Rashford being sent off for Manchester United which was never a sending-off. When he goes to plant his foot, the young guy’s foot wasn’t there initially and then it’s there. He gets sent off and that changes the course of the game.
“I see it a lot more often now and I think that the waiting about, the hanging about. I said after the game the other night, it feels like it is more like a computer game now. Everything is being assessed on a screen. That’s not football, it is not football. I think if it continues that way, then of course, it would have to be looked at because from a players and supporters perspective and an actual general football perspective that is not the game we know and not the game we love.
“I just think that everyone will look at it. I think in any line of work if something has been put in place then you have to review and reflect on whether it is working or not. I think that’s what is key. I have spoken to people down in the Championship in England where there is no VAR and they tend to quite enjoy it. They understand there are going to be some mistakes but the fluency of the game, the fluidity of it all, feels a little bit removed from the constant looking at screens and just by our conversation it is not something that should be getting talked about as much as it is.”
Rodgers is spot on with his comments. The technology itself works, in the main, but this issue is how much it is being applied and the context of decision-making. Looking at stills and passages of play in hyper-slow motion is not what we want to see at all.
Football is in danger of becoming a frustrating mess for everyone involved. If the players, supporters and managers don’t like it – why is it being used? Who is it for? These are serious questions that authorities need to address across the game.
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