VAR - The Quick Way To Make A Bad Situation Worse

AMERICAN, ARENA, ASSOCIATION, Australian Rules, Balkan, Beach Soccer, Canadian, Crab, Five-a-Side, Flag, Footbag, Freestyle, Futsal, Gaelic, Ice, Indoor Football, Jorkyball, Keepy-Uppie, Omegaball, Rollerball, Rugby League, Rugby Union, Sevens, Seven-a-Side, Street, Swamp, Three v Three, Three Sided, Touch, Walking and Wheelchair. That's 30 different types of football – and believe me, there are more, but some such as The Eton Wall Game are maybe just a tad too specialist.

I could even include such specialised forms of the game as Glasgow Works Football, games between blue collar workers often involving fixturs such as Tradesmen v Apprentices, Married Men v Single Men and the allegedly most-popular Billys v Tims, where there is but one rule: “Nae bluid, nae foul”.

The pureest and most-popular format, however, is what we in Scotland, the spiritual home of the game, we call “Fitba”. Two sides, each comprising 11 men, playing 45 minuts each way, the object of the game being to, uding any part of the body, except hands or arms, but mainly the feet, to propel the spheroid into one of the clearly identified goals at either end of a rectangular pitch; the team scoring the greater number of goals in the designated perid of to halves being the winner.

It could hardly be simpler, so, over the years the rules-makers have striven manfully to make such a simple game more-complicated. There latest such wheeze VAR may well be the best impediment yet to making the simplest of games more complex. It seems, since VAR was introduced, particularly into Scotland, that things have gone from bad to worse.

Take Sunday's big stooshie, at Pittodrie, where Kilmarnock Captain Brad Lyons, having initially been yellow-carded by Referee Matthew MacDermid, for a foul on Ester Sokler, saw his yellow upgraded to a red, after the intervention of VAR man Nick Walsh.

Post-match, Killie Boss Derek McInnes was not a happy chappie. He would happily have accepted a yellow card for his man, but he felt the red was excessive – and not just because I am a Kilmarnock fan, I agreed with Derek.

MacDermid is one of our younger officials, he may well be a coming man, but he is not, unlike Walsh, yet on the FIFA list – our top referees at present; so perhaps the upgrading was a case of the more-experienced official, if only even by the mystiucal power of status, persuading him to change his mind.

We ought perhaps to remember here what VAR stands for; it means Video ASSISTANT Referee, the man in the TV truck is there to Assist the referee, where perhaps he missed something. Consider too the Laws of the Game:

Law 5 clearly states: “The decisions of the referee regarding facts connected with play are final”.

So, when Mr MacDermid decided that Lyons' tackle on Sokler was worthy of a yellow card, that ought to have been the end of the matter. VAR is there to calrify situations where the referee has made a clear and obvious error – did this apply in this situation, I suggest not.

• MacDermid spotted the foul

• He penalised it

• He considered the Lyons challenge worthy of a yellow card

• He punished it with that sanction

• Time to move on.

MacDermid had not made a clear and obvius error, he had administered a yellow card; that Walsh thought this insufficient punishment is neither here or there, he was butting into an incident which had nothig to do with him. I would suggest MacDermid's only error was to listen to the more-expereienced and more-senior official.

Let's hope, should the two find themselves in the same roles, in another game, MacDermid hasd the cojones to tell Walsh: “Butt out Nick, I saw it, I've dealt with it, thank you”.

VAR is a flawerd concept, being badly implemented. It has caused more problems than it has solved and needs urgent review. Is there the common sense and intelligence inside the game to bring about this necessary review? Ah ahe ma doots.

THAT WAS not the best stair-heid rammy of the weekend, however. Thr pictures are not great but, get onto The Guardian website, click on Sport, then go to US Sports and watch the stooshie during the Rutgers v Umass Women's Soccer (as our colonial cousins call it) match.

Basically, a foul, a tussle for the ball, punches thrown – two red cards. The very nice looking blonde who got the first red, long blonde hair, pony-tail, very American girl net door, is clearly not a lady to whom one might present a broken pay poke. Credit to the referee for handling the situation so well.

FINALLY – this morning the death was announced of Sven Goran Eriksson, the former England team manager, some eight months after he announced he had terminal cancer, he was 76.

As the first foreigner to manage the national side, Sven Goran was never going to get an easy ride from the Little Englanders in the tabloid press, but, even when his extra-curricular activities with fellow Swede Ulrika Johnssen became public, he behaved with a great deal more dignity than the red-top rottweillers who pursued him.

I suppose, like every other England manager, Sven Goran suffered from being unable to fulfill English expectations. He supposedly had at his disposal, a Golden Generation of talent – the reality being, as is so oftent he case, being English the players were over-rated by their press corps, keen to build theem up, so they could have fun knocking them down.

He had a distinguished record across Europe and while perhaps not on the upper level of the managerial pantheon, he was a very-good coach, My condolences to hius family and friends.

 

Embarrassing Doesn't Even Cover It

ON OF the more-regular readers of these haverings contacted me some time ago and informed me: “Your posts are all about the Old Firm”. Now, this overlooks the opinion of a considerable sect of the Celtic Family, to the effect there no longer is an Old Firm; but, leaving that spurious argument aside, you have to admit, the Bigot Brothers is the gift that keeps on giving. So, it beholds any reasonable member of the Fourth Estate to highlight the latest stupidity to come out of eithr camp.

Which brings me to those cringe-worthy, totally embarrassing scenes on Saturday night at Hampden, as the Rangers players celebrated that epoch-defining 2-0 win over St Johnstone, as if they had won the European Cup. Worse, Manager Philippe Clement, who really ought to know better, joined in. FFS man, you've won nothing, you only beat the team which finished tenth in the league last season.

The official attendance was given as just under 39,000 – which means Hampden was only three-quarters full for the game. OK, there was some disappointment at Rangers crashing out of the Champions League qualifiers at home in midweek, while some of the Bears are none too happy at being froced to temporarily decamp to Hampden; there was also some upset at the game not being covered by a season ticket but, clearly some of the Follow Follow gang are being a bit more discerning as to when and what they are prepared to follow.

Or, might the High Heid Yins inside Ibrox be discovering, you might indeed be able to fool some of Ra Peepul some of the time, you cannot fool all of Ra Pepul all of the time. The fans are well aware they are being asked to pay good money to watch bad players, and, unless things improve, I can see a return to the 40 year old joke of the John Greig as Manager era, when it was said: “There's a design fault in the new look Ibrox – they built it with the seats facing the pitch”. These were the days when Rangers matches were played out in front of rows of empty seats.

As I have been saying for this entire calendar year – the bulk of the current Rangrers team are simply not Rangers Class, and even the true believers are starting to see this. If Celtic does not come up with a domestic treble this season, then Brendan Rodgers must be sacked – they are that far ahead.

I HAD a telephonere conversation this week with my pal Johnny, who is a life-long Somerset Park regular. His hearing has apparently gone off to look for the rest of his marbles, but I did learn, he is pleaantly surprised by the start his beloved Honest Men have made to the season.

Johnny knows, however, there have been past false dawns down Somerset Road, and it's still only August. But he admits to having his reservations about appointing Scott Brown assuaged somewhat. He believes the cross-culture combination of Broonie and number two Steven Whittaker offers some hope of a return to the good old Ally MacLeod era for Ayr United. He is also impressed by the way David Smith, the man currently custodian of the club has gone about things, not leat getting the new North Stand built and open, and investing in the club's Academy. However, as Johnnhy added: “These are early days in the new season”.

SOME 14 miles up the A77 things are not quite so rosey. Kilmarnock may still be in Europe, albeit having dropped out of the Europa League into the Conference League, but a pattern has developed of encouraging midweek results in continental competitions being followed by defeat in domestic matches.

Killie dropped out of the Premier Sports League Cup at the weekend, but, fortunately for them, their next fixture sees them back in Europe, to face FC Copenhagen on Thursday night. I have two fears for this game, the principal one being, will the Killie fans be able to keep the heid when faced with the delights of The Tivoli Gardens, or some of the wilder, more louche deligghts of the Danish capital.

My second fear is this, facing Copenhagen is a move up in class from the teams they have faced thus far. But, in Europe, as in so-much involving supportng one of Scotland's “diddy teams” - “It's the hope that kills”.

THURSDAY NIGHT is also a big night for another of our top clubs, with Heart of Midlothian kicking-off their latest European adventure, with their own opening Europa League game, against Czech side Viktoria Plzen.

I may be barking up the wrong tree here, but, as far as can remember, Scottish sides tend not to fare none too well in the Czech Republic. On that spurious basis, things might not go too well for Hearts on the park, But given that Plzen is the home of Skoda cars and, more-importantly for the travelling Jambos, is also the home of Pilsner beer, making it one of the top destinations for fans with a thirst.

Viktoria are currently riding high in the Czech League, lying second with three wins and a draw from their four games thus far. Given Hearts have still to post a victory in therir three competitive matches thus far this season, their form wil need to improve somewhat in their match in Central Europe.

 

Hardly A Champions' Performance

THAT RANGERS' display on Tuesday night, against Dynamo Kyiv was truly honking. Long before Rangers went down to ten men, I was wondering when Dynamo were going to break upfield and win the game, it was that obvious what was going to happen.

But let's begin by tackling the elephant in the room. Of course Jefte's dismissal, on a second yellow card was never a bookable offence in the history of football – except, for at least the last 25-years, such challenges by a defender will ALWAYS result in at the very least a free-kick for the attacking side.

I can remember becoming certain of this systemic unfairness many years ago, when, in a Hibs v St Mirren game at Easter Road, a clearance from the back by the Buddies came down inside the centre circle. From a standing start, big Mark Yardley rose to head the ball, but was beaten to it and flattened by John “Yogi” Hughes II, who had run some ten yards to meet the ball.

Yards was stationary, Yogi on the move, Yogi clearly won the ball, but St Mirren got the free-kick. This is also what happened at Hampden on Tuesday; same incident, same outcome, 20-plus years apart, showing how in football, plus ca change etc. Mind you at least our haun-knitted Scottish referee had the good sense not to book Yogi.

Tuesday night's incident also (again) demonstrates that old chestnut which this blog quotes regularly – Jock Stein's dictum that you should never give a referee a chance to make a decision which could hurt you.

Jock was taken from us nearly 40 years ago, but, still players with Scottish clubs have not digested his wisdom.

I now turn to part two of this sermon. I said throughout last season, that Rangers squad was a very-poor one, stuffed full of players who were NRC – Not Rangers Class. To his credit, Manager Philippe Clement has managed to off-load some of the worse of those failures, unfortunately, he appears to have replaced them with players similarly lacking in the qualities required of a Rangers First Team Player.

Should Celtic fail to win everything this new season, I will be amazed. Mind you, on Tuesday night, Rangers were found out in Champions League qualifying; who knows, the squad Clement is putting together might well be good enough for the lesser challenges of domestic Scottish fitba. With a following wind, they might hang on in one of the diddy European competitions until Christmas, but, I write that line more in hope than expectation.

My final take on Tuesday night. Philippe Clement had a case for calling the red card for his Brazilian: “The worst decision I have seen in 30 years in football”, but, it's been made now and it's no good crying over spilt milk – maybe he should have his players a bit better disciplined. However, I did feel, the Italian referee had decided Kyiv was the better side and the more-likely to go through. He let their players off with fouls for which he penalised Rangers' players – which tends to happen in fitba.

Clement also said he felt Rangers had been the better team. FFS, what planet is the man on? They didn't force one meaningful save out of the Dynamo 'keeper; the writing was on the wall long before Dynamo's first goal. I fear Clement, and more-worryingly the High Heid Yins inside Ibrox are in a serious state of denial as to how poor a team they currently have.

Maybe the Rangers High Heid Yins should work harder at getting non-Scottish referees onside, or are they simply so used to getting all the 75/25 decisions in Scotland, they are at a loss when they don't even get one or two 50/50s in Europe?

I WAS going to leave our Staunch Loyal fans to stew in their own juices with that one, then I saw The Scottish Sun's Facebook page, and had a huge belly laugh.

With the bias and lack of judgement which is the hallmark of the Murdoch papers, the strapline on the page told us: “Referee Marco Guida told he should never referee in the Champions League again”.

This I had to read – who had delivered this damning verdict? Had Roberto Rosetti – UEFA's Head of Referees been so upset at that red card, he had called his fellow Italian official and said something like: “Marco, tonight you sleep with the fishes”?

Sadly, this verdict had come not from an apparatchik like Roberto, it had come right from the summit of football, from Allan McGregor, Alan Hutton, Billy Dodds; giants of the game, whose opinions are listened to and acted upon inside UEFA's corridors of power in Nyon, Switzerland – NOT.

This sort of stuff demonstrates how far the Sun's standards have slipped from the glory days of Steve Wolstencroft - “The Mad Geordie”. Steve was the guy who broke the Daily Rhebel's vice-like grip on Scottish football opinion at a lower level. The way he did it, Steve didn't give a toss about cow-towing to the Old Firm, he would have a go at both cheeks of the arse of Scottish football in equal measure.

Had Steve still been running the Hun's sports pages, sure, he'd have had a go at the referee for what was truly a bad decision, but, he would never have sold out to the large conspiracy theory element within the Breengers' support.

In addition, you might think, after all this time – the club has been competing in European competitions on a more-or-less seasonal basis for nearly 70 years – it had dawned on the High Heid Yins inside Ibrox that, just as their club, and their pals across the city, get all the disputed calls in Scottish Football: it would never do to give an even break to the “Diddy Teams”. In Europe, Rangers are a “Diddy Team”.

Perhaps, instead of adding fuel to the conspiracy theories and that feeling that “Nobody likes us and we certainly care” Roger Hannah and his team in Queen Street should be railing against the current hierarchy across at Ibrox – because Bill Struth, Scot Symon and John Lawrence they aint.