It is now rewarding blatant cheating.

At least justice was served.

He can about 14 referees be sat in a room in Moscow and not be able to see what Ronaldo did? He had lost control of the ball and used his own body to jump into the defender. The replay they showed the ref made it look a penalty as well.

How is this shite enhancing the game? It’s spoiling it.

The conviction or lack of it in his penalty was maybe a bit of conscience? I doubt it like!

Ronaldo was shitting himself there, blatantly thought there was a strong possibility he would walk! I'd of sent him off, the intent was there.

It could have been one of the funniest things to ever happen if he’d have been sent off for that. I reckon anyone else would have gone the blokes in full kit in Moscow who are sat ruining the World Cup thought it was a Red.

Again though, Fuck Off VAR, get on with the game.

It gets worse! Ah well at least it's not just the VAR gadgies but also the ref on the pitch who hasn't got a clue.

This is comical!

Infantino should be put in the stocks for this.

I look forward to the 15 minutes of injury time.

Only 6 minutes added!?

Please someone try and defend VAR after that?

I'm fucking sick of it already. A pen or two a game and just because the ref goes to check it doesn't mean he has to bloody give the decision!

I like it a lot. To think I was worried that VAR would make it boring as there wouldn’t be any controversy. Maybe the refs were thinking that too. Jokers.

It's become difficult to remember the last game where VAR wasn't the main talking point. That's not what it's meant to do.

Things like red cards should be awarded retrospectively, they can wear their ref uniforms to review footage then too if that's what they want.
I'd of agreed with it to award penalties that the ref has missed but clearly it's been used to award penalties that the referee correctly didn't give in the first place. It's like in an exam when you write the correct answer but when you review it you panic and start over thinking and change your answer to a wrong one.

At most VAR should be used for incidents the ref is looking the other way for. If a ref sees an incident, regardless of it he gets it right, his initial decision should stand. He's the official, not the players or manager who are demanding VAR at any contact and every goal. I thought the authorities were trying to encourage respect for referees?

The Ref is getting a lot of clog and maybe rightly so but why was the handball even shown to him? The clowns in full kit must have thought it was penalty to show him, he’s watching in a full stadium with the World Watching. On first watch it was clear that wasn’t a deliberate handball, they looked at it for ages then decided that he had a decision to make when he had already made the correct one. Both of his non penalty decisions were fair enough he just then crumbled during the farcical process of running off to watch the portable tele.

Surely we are getting to the point were they do something about it and get rid of this farce for the knockout stages? Keep it for offsides and nothing else. Its no coincidence that the higher the stakes are getting the more it flaws are being exposed to the detriment of the tournament. Imagine the next round Uraguay v Portugal with the likes of Suarez, Pepe, Godin and Ronaldo involved!? Good luck with that.

The very worst thing about it is that it seems to have heightened cheating and play acting. Surely that wasn’t the idea? Any slight touch and they are round the ref making TV signals, Ronaldo played in expertly last night for the penalty. Can you imagine players behavior when we get to the semis or final? It is not good for the game on any level and the way that group was decided last night was totally unsatisfactory and farcical for what is meant to be the Worlds biggest sporting event.

Down with this shite!!

Why is it only used for fouls and not diving and cheating? I can't remember a booking for simulation even when the ref have reviewed VAR and seen little/no contact, such as Neymar's penalty claim. That was one occasion where it worked and a clear and obvious mistake had been made by the ref but only he could explain why he hadn't seen it in real time considering how close he was.

For something designed to increase consistency in decisions, it's done the complete opposite.

Because apparently they can’t review cautionable offences just red cards. So the full kit wankers in Moscow obviously thought the Ronaldo arm was a red card. I mean it would have been tremendously funny to see that happen just for his reaction but I reckon yellow was correct, so people saying the Referee was the problem and not VAR are just plain wrong. The two penalties and the Ronaldo non red card were all fair enough decisions on field at the time and would barely be talking points without this ridiculous process he just crumbled under the review system and multiple other referees saying suggesting he was wrong.

The Iran penalty was the blatantly the correct decision initially. Looking at the laws of the game I see no way how that is a deliberate handball. His hand was in a natural position and his eyes were closed trying to head the ball.

Ultimately we shouldn’t be learning about the whole process at a World Cup the players, officials, and supporters should have had at least 3-4 years of getting familiar with it before it was even contemplated to be anywhere near the biggest tournament on Earth. I reckon it would have been sacked off long ago if that was the case.

It was summed up be the Morroco player ago shouted ‘VAR is Bullshit’ down the camera at full time last night.

I still don't know why they've tried to reinvent the idea of a video official. What is happening now is a whole world of confusion for everybody. Referee doesn't give something, some fancy dress group miles away buzz him and say "are you sure?" and which point he thinks well I was, but if you are contacting me I must be wrong.

He then goes and stands squinting at a tv screen, sweat pouring into his eyes to try and work out what the fancy dress party has seen to buzz him. Farce. If he still doesn't see anything, he's saying, this VAR system doesn't work, so he regretfully agrees with the fancy dress party and the whole thing falls apart.

Nobody has the final say anymore, it's not even trial by jury. The rugby system, "try or no try" WORKS!

Yours,
Annoyed of the South

In general I think VAR has worked pretty well but clearly you are always going to get outliers that heavily support the argument that it's rubbish.

It doesn't help when both sets of players behave in such an amateurish way. The last 30 minutes of the game was just a contest to see who could get the other one sent off first rather a game of football (cue jokes along the lines of, "isn't it always like that!"). It's hardly surprising that VAR was being used relentlessly given every challenge resulted in a player going down as if he'd been shot whilst a handful of his teammates surrounded the ref.

Worst game of the tournament by an absolute mile.

It's the offside checks that get me, the linesman now knows he doesn't have to make a decision because if someone scores then someone will make it for him anyway. A disallowed goal is fine when it's instant but it will get to the point where no one will celebrate until 30 seconds later when they've decided if they're reviewing it or not.

They need to take things like opinion out of it and use it only for line decisions where it can be digitised.

Do you think the players behavior is going to improve the later and more important the games get? Portugal v Uraguay is already a game I don’t want to watch.

How in your opinion has it worked ‘pretty well?’ ‘Outliers’ have given loads of examples of how it hasn’t to be fair.

It works well in Rugby and Cricket why not Football?

Because it will take controversy out of the game and the authorities dont want that because cheating and the endless debate it causes is part and parcel of the game. Football in a circus.

Because they are completely different sports perhaps and the technology is used for mostly matters of fact goal line and offside are the only things it lends itself to in football the rest is subjective.

It surely can't get any worse than last night though in terms of behaviour. You'll at least have two teams capable of playing decent football.

There have been plenty of examples of VAR being used where the correct decision has been arrived at too. Don't get me wrong I understand the argument that if it gets just as many wrong then what's the point. But the history of introducing video technology to sport suggests that this will improve over time. When video technology was first used for decisions other than run outs in cricket it didn't work that well. From memory the rule was only used to judge whether a catch had been taken rathern than arguably the more important issue of whether the batsman had hit the ball!

My outlier comment was more aimed at this is the only game so far where the game has descended into complete farce. In my opinion anyway.

But no games at a World Cup should descend into complete farce, the fact one has already is a disgrace it is the World Cup it is not the place for a system that isn’t refined and that everyone isn’t familiar with.

You can not compare it to other sports either Cricket especially which is completely line calls and matters of fact, even for tight line calls umpires call comes into play.

How many penalties have we had so far 20 odd half way through the tournament, that is ridiculous. As for Portugal playing decent football the VAR nonsense distracted away from how dreadful they were, they stink the place out but somehow manage to get results I’d rather watch Iceland

It kind of works in rugby, possibly because TMO has had a 15-year running-in period, but like VAR is shaping up to be, it's an easy out and overused. Certain refs like Romain Poite seem to live and breathe by it.
It USED to be "try or no try" but now it's edging back up the try sequence looking for forward passes and stuff. And for foul play at any time.
Rugby League on the other had has got it spot on. VAR should use that as its template if it continues.

A very simple thing the game could learn about Rugby is about respecting officials. It was fairly obvious that players were going appeal for VAR, why not inform the players before the tournament that any asking for or making TV shapes with hands is an automatic yellow card. That is in an instant quite easy improvement.

Like this?

Or this.

Football is played by humans, and as such there will always be a certain amount of human error, it's part of the game and provides us all with talking points and different opinions, trying to sanitise the game by using technology is detrimental to the game. It adds nothing and takes away the spontaneity, the other day Sweden were given a penalty after play had continued for a good 20 to 30 seconds, the ball was up the other end of the pitch when it was given. Why can't we just have refs making the odd duff decision, things have a way of evening themselves out usually. The people operating the technology don't seem to be able to get it right 100% of the time anyway so it still boils down to human error, only with unnecessary delays and breaks in play.

To be fair Nigel Owens has always been a bit of a showboater, but he's the go-to referee for big matches for a reason—he's damn good. As is Wayne Barnes. French refs on the other hand, although good at decisions, let far too much dissent go unpunished in their national league, leaving their players perplexed when they try it on outside their league and get the Owens/Barnes treatment.

Thing is with VAR it’s supposed to be for clear and obvious errors, whereas now the referee is just interpreting their judgement on it whenever there’s a review, how on earth can anyone say that was a handball against Portugal the other night I’ll never know

Not convinced that was a penalty either before or after watching the replay. Are FIFA trying to meet some quota of VAR decisions during the tournament?

That wasn’t a VAR decision the Ref gave a penalty and the replay provided no clear evidence it was wrong.

Mascherano has been woeful, Nigeria’s best player, surely a nation like Argentina shouldn’t be picking blokes who are earning a living in the Chinese retirement league? It’s as if he spent the hour before the game in Maradonas executive box, more specifically the toilet cubical where he snorts his Columbian marching powder.

Why do they keep showing Maradona by the way it’s crimgeworthy he’s absolutely off his tits.

If Mascherano had kept his hands to himself, the Nigerian wouldn't have had the chance to cheat (assuming he did). Great decision that can only dissuade teams from crawling all over England's attackers.

He didn't hold or impede the Nigerian lad and while not a penalty in my eyes I can understand it's pushing the rules as far you can and gives the ref too much chance to interpret it as a penalty.

At least I've had the impression of watching a contested match at some point today (I'm looking at you, France and Denmark).

Even the VAR gadgie didn't want to watch that shite back.

1-0 South Korea. Justice done, thanks to VAR...

If that's the basis for saying VAR should stay then we should resign Fenwick as he scored for us.

Strong refs will get the best out of VAR. Weak ones will be dominated by it.


Anyway, in this instance who cares? Germany are out!!!



Somehow I don't think Martinez will be making 10 team changes tomorrow night after all.

Korea......had little to play for yet accounted for themselves brilliantly......well done!

Offsides work, they are matter of fact, it’s the only part of it that does work and the only thing that should be retained from this farce.

Anyway let’s not let this get in the way of laughing at the Germans!! They were that bad they reminded me of England at the last Euros, slow, ponderous, predictable. Hummels should have had a hat trick in the last ten minutes mind!

I think there's a lot of teams in the qualifying rounds who'd be over the (Seon-Min) Moon to get a scalp as big as Germany in this World Cup. South Korea will go home to a heroes' welcome.

They have generally struggled in Russia.

Are they blaming the cold weather again?

German attack thwarted in Russia - nothing new here

Turns out I know feck all about South Korea - from today's Guardian:

"South Korea may have put the reigning world champions Germany out, but their performance wasn’t enough to get out of the groups ... and it wasn’t enough to spare the players a humiliating welcome back home. Upon landing in Incheon yesterday, they were pelted by eggs as they lined up for a photo. But the Korean FA have decided not to pursue charges, a local bobby explaining: “Throwing eggs is considered an assault, but it’s also an offence which can’t be prosecuted without the victim’s objection.” Thank goodness they at least registered that win over the Germans, because last time round they finished bottom of their group, and upon returning home from Brazil were pelted with toffees, the most heinous of insults in Korea."

Were the eggs free range, boiled or not.
Were the toffees Everton or not.
Another gap in the journalism of the Grauniad exposed by the bunker.