Jim Holden column: VAR is hopeless and could ruin the Premier League if introduced

It should be no surprise that the initial experiments with VAR in English football during the past couple of months have been a shambles. This was entirely predictable – and was predicted here.

Referees are already dithering, as they do in rugby, because they have the back up of video replays and are afraid to make mistakes.

Long delays to assess incidents are alienating players and fans in equal measure. Technology has been unable to provide ‘perfect’ answers to marginal decisions and those which will always require a referee’s interpretation.

Controversy about decisions has not been ended; it has just opened up a different kind of aggravation. Communication to the watching public of what is happening when play is stopped for a VAR analysis has been hopeless.

This was all entirely predictable – and was predicted here. The deluded half of the football world that still believes in VAR will tell you these are just teething problems and that they will be sorted out with the passage of time.

For the rest of us, the only question that matters is this: Do we still have time to fight off the march of technology and make VAR disappear?

The extent of the shambles gives us a glimmer of hope.

UEFA have observed the horrors of how VAR has been despised by the majority of spectators in Germany and Italy this season, and said it will not introduce the system for the Champions League and Europa League next season.

Yes, there can be wisdom in Europe.

The 20 clubs of the Premier League will vote in a few weeks’ time on whether VAR should operate in its competition next season, and the clamour is beginning to grow for them to say No.

Crystal Palace chairman Steve Parish is strongly opposed, and was joined in scepticism last week by Stoke City counterpart Peter Coates.

“I didn’t realise how poorly it is actually operated in practice,” said Coates after yet another farcical example in the FA Cup replay between Tottenham and Rochdale where they spent eight minutes on VAR assessments in the first half alone.

“I don’t want to go down the rugby route – that’s a nightmare,” said Coates.

“Football’s a fast-flowing game; I don’t want too much interruption. The little interface we’ve had with this system since it’s come in, I’ve become less and less enamoured.”

It requires 14 clubs to vote in favour for VAR to be used in the Premier League. We have two against already, so only five more needed.

There must be some heroes out there munching prawn sandwiches in the boardrooms to save the day.

Will the owners of Huddersfield listen to the view of their intelligent young manager David Wagner? He hates the use of technology and says bluntly: “VAR kills the emotion of the game.”

Will the powerbrokers of Tottenham listen to their formidable gaffer Mauricio Pochettino? He says: “”I think football is about emotion. If we are going to kill emotion, it’s not so happy what we have seen. I think the referee is the boss on the pitch and has the last word always.”

Will all the rest listen to Ossie Ardiles, a legend of football? His view echoes the feelings of so many fans as he says: “VAR is making the best game in the world degenerate into a farce. It is just a mockery of the game.”

If the Premier League musters the courage and common sense to follow UEFA and resist bringing in the blight of technology, it would send a strong signal to other leagues and competitions in football that the game can survive perfectly well without it.

The German Bundesliga will review their season of experiment with VAR in the spring, and there are loud calls from players and fans to abandon it.

A recent poll of players found 47 per cent against VAR, with 42 per cent in favour and 11 per cent sitting on the fence. Supporter hostility is widespread with protests at many grounds. Observers in Germany think that a refusal by the Premier League to introduce

VAR would have a profound impact on the debate there.

I hope that’s the case. The fight against VAR is vital for football, and I hope against hope it’s a battle that can still be won.

EDDIE JONES was sitting in the Cartoon Bar of the old-world Randolph Hotel in the centre of Oxford when he revealed that he had been subjected to verbal and physical abuse while travelling on a train back from the Six Nations match between England and Scotland. He didn’t make a song and dance about it; in fact he only talked about it reluctantly in response to questions.

The England head coach suffered the abuse for two reasons. He made the old-fashioned mistake for a famous person of believing public transport would be a safe environment.

He was abused, too, because his plain-talking style makes him a ‘character’ in the modern world. Jones is certainly a compelling personality, which is part of why he has been such a success with England. But that does not mean he is a cartoon character who can be casually attacked in the manner of an episode of Bugs Bunny or Tom and Jerry.

It was clear, as Jones talked, that the scars from the incident were very real. And what a sadness that is.

DURING the fuss about the England football team wearing a poppy on their shirts around the time of Remembrance Day, the FA were adamant it was okay to oppose a FIFA ban.

It was an act of defiance that won them friends, and eventually the protocol of world football’s governing body was amended to allow the poppy. So why, now, are the same FA making fools of themselves by a determination to stop Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola from wearing a yellow ribbon as a symbol of support for imprisoned politicians in his native Catalonia?

The ribbon is no problem for UEFA, but apparently contravenes current FA regulations. Surely, isn’t the answer is to amend their own rules?

CYCLING may have its problems, but the thrilling drama of track racing in noisy velodromes retains a special allure.

To see Laura and Jason Kenny both return to elite competition with silver medals at the current Track Cycling World Championships was a welcome reminder of the virtues of this sport.