VAR takes centre stage yet again – it was never supposed to be like this

VAR and the verdicts being made are harming the very product it was brought in to improve, writes Ben Burrows

Liverpool’s Fabinho celebrates scoring his side’s third goal against Crystal Palace (PA)

The video assistant referee (VAR) once again took centre stage on another exciting weekend in the Premier League.

The top story at the top of the division was Liverpool closing the gap at the summit to nine points after Manchester City dropped points at Southampton on Saturday evening before the Reds won away to Crystal Palace on Sunday afternoon.

However, it was VAR’s influence in the game at Selhurst Park that stole the headlines.

An innocuous coming together between Diogo Jota and Palace goalkeeper Vicente Guaita saw the visitors – after much deliberation – awarded a spot-kick upon review, which Fabinho dispatched to put the game to bed a minute from time.

The call left home manager Patrick Vieira, as well as fans and pundits, aghast and again thrust the impact of technology on the game into the spotlight. The system was brought in to rid the game of the clear and obvious error, to stop refereeing clangers from deciding the outcome of matches.

With the importance of finer and finer margins never greater at the top of the game, it made sense too, but the system in its current form, with big calls going the wrong way and inconsistencies, is anything but clear and obvious.

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It’s impossible to get decisions 100 per cent right, 100 per cent of the time, of course, but at a certain point, the up and down nature of VAR and the verdicts being made harms the very product it was brought in to improve.

On Sunday a grandstand finish in south London that looked perfectly set up was denied by a poor decision made in front of a monitor many miles away. Games at any level shouldn’t be decided that way.

Whether you are pro-VAR or against it, that is surely something we can all agree on.

Yours,

Ben Burrows

Sport editor