When it comes to (lack of) consultation with supporters, we tend to focus on things like kick off times, long away trips over Xmas, ticket prices etc. It is also important to note, however, that the way the game is actually played has been messed about with in increasingly significant ways with no mandate from supporters at all. The implementation of VAR is like the new handball rules, or the clampdown on 'excessive' force in tackling, or many other things that make the game unrecognisable from previous decades - it was a big change to the game itself that was foisted onto supporters without their consent or blessing.
I think VAR was seen as increasingly inevitable once TV coverage started to analyse decisions in-play, and especially once smartphones made transmission of footage near-instantaneous. It was felt that without VAR we would return to a situation where, for instance, a player scores by foul play and everyone in the ground soon knows the exact truth of it apart from the one person who counts. I can see how that becomes very difficult, especially as the game then continues on with everyone knowing, and the ref knowing that everyone knows something he doesn't. For that reason I doubt we will ever get shot of VAR completely.
However, even the most ardent supporters of VAR must surely by now see that it causes as much upset as it solves. What VAR punishes in one game it ignores in another because, in forensically examining key decisions, all we establish is that they remain subjective. If we had sacrificed the flow, speed, and emotional nature of the game but had at least got universally accepted decision-making in return then perhaps it might be worth it (though I'm not at all sure of that). As it is, we are still arguing over decisions and inconsistency, so the terrible intrusion of VAR on the spirit of the game is impossible to justify. It simply must change, and significantly so.
The current solution to this seems to be to push VAR deeper and deeper into the game, making it all-invasive. Corners will soon be checked, for fecks sake. The current fuss is over grappling at set plays, so that will be where VAR goes next, but there can be three or four scuffles at a corner, each playing out over ten or so seconds before and as the ball is delivered. Will we then have to assess each interaction between players afterwards? For each corner? That would take an age, but if not, how will we ensure no breach of the rules has been missed? That is the logical next phase of the mindset that says 'Technically correct decisions are all that matter, whatever the cost', and that is the mindset of the lawmakers at present.
Then there is all the carry-on that VAR encourages. Modern players are shameless cheats. Once, we used to adopt the moral high ground on the issue of on-field conduct, but English players have been the worst divers around for ages now and our league, once prized for its competitive, hard-but-fair spirit, is no different to any other now. The media never call it out as they are too scared to damage the product. The industry is so financially erratic and dog eat dog that it cannot police itself morally - no player will be criticised by his own club for diving, even in private, if they think it might work. They fall over at the slightest touch, scream out, contort their faces in agony, again and again and again. All without even passing comment, let alone criticism. Add in VAR, which is obsessed with looking at everything in slow motion to find the smallest contact and, partly to justify itself, sees every contact as a free kick. Why wouldn't a player go over all the time? Nothing to lose, all to gain. VAR is a big part of the awful sporting culture we now have.
I would solve it like this:
1. VAR to be used to check goals (including offsides), serious and dangerous foul play, and possible penalty kicks. Nothing else, ever.
2. When one of the above happens, VAR has ten seconds. If it can't see a breach of the rules in that time then it isn't clear and obvious and is within the same reasonable tolerance the game operated under for over a century. You can spot the Thierry Henry handball in that time, but not a toenail offside. Perfect.
3. No slow motion or lines on the screen allowed. If you can't see it in real time then, again, it can't be clear and obvious. Plus, assessing the extent and effect of some miniscule contact in slow-motion is misleading, when in real time you can see very clearly that the player has thrown himself to the ground. A basic sense of the rules of physics is a huge part of immediately recognising if something is a foul/dive or not. Don't use VAR to create an artificial world where you can't rely on that basic sense.
4. All managers and clubs to be informed, and a permanent public statement to be made, that there will always be disagreement over decisions and some mistakes, but that IS PART OF FOOTBALL. Suck it up you f***ing babies and get on with it should be the message, not pandering to nonsense moaning. VAR should exist as a rarely-used backstop to prevent obvious and significant errors, not to kill the game itself. If it was seen that way then a lot of the problems would be solved overnight.
