I imagine that VAR, in the abstract and idealistic sense, utilised with more competence, is viewed as quite a positive thing for football. I think that it is generally assumed that the more scrupulous we are, the more rigirous and scrutinising we are in decisions made for this offside or that red card, that this is conducive to the betterment of the game. And I also think that with this case, it is the complete opposite.

For me, when you become so enamored, which is to say that you become belittled and disoriented by, the most minute of margins, you devalue football immensely. What we are dealing with is a sport not founded on the refinemdnt of such minute details, but on ambiguity and vagueness and arbitrary happenings. Of feet and heads and asscheeks being slightly ahead of another’s, of involuntary movement in a challenge free of maliciousness, of the ball skimming ones slightly outstretched arm. When you enforce these little trivialities, you altogether lose sight of that reason that any rules were ever enforced.

And why are those rules enforced? They are enforced because there are things that are considered illegal and that shouldn’t be permitted to happen. And this is customary and perfectly reasonable. Above all, however, punishment and enforcement is there to distinguish between what should be rewarded and what shouldn’t be rewarded: a feckless studded tackle should not stop an attack and retrieve the ball for the team—a clean tackle should; a goal concieved through offside play should not stand—a goal not concieved in this manner, should stand. And so on… It seems to me that the way in which VAR operates it totally antagonistic to the idea that players should be appropriately rewarded. In fact there have been many world-class passages of play leading up to a goal that was disallowed because of some paltry triviality, like the centimetre distance between a leg and another. What these officials don’t realise is that football, as mentioned earlier, is not a sport about these paltry details. The player does have any agency, any responsibility, for his being a nanometer onside or a nanometer offside; by some arbitrary mechanic of nature he is simply in that position, and there is no willing that will ensure him either state. And so what these officials do is punish players for something entirely without the reins of their control. And not only this, but something so inconsequential. Because the offside rule was created because players being offside was significant; but in such fine margins we lose such significance, and with it, sight of the very purpose of the offside rule.

It shouldn’t be underestimated just how monumental an impact these decisions have. One seemingly small goal can alter the course of a season. The impact of a disallowed goal, an allowed goal, is not just felt in that moment in the game, but in fact it is felt in the entire game, in the games that follow it and preceded it, in the season in its entirety, in the players themselves, in their careers and their abilities. These decisions truly have cosmic implications and yet they are made in such wanton fashion.

And since we are not in such an idealistic state of affairs with regards to VAR, how much worse is the reality! There are such innumerable inconsistencies, discrepancies in interpretation, and then those scenarios where one cannot possibly be consistent, or objective. And now we see that, with good cause, people speak of match fixing and corruption and bought referees. But the truth of the matter is much more mundane, and inexorably so: the PGMOL are as blindly-firing soldiers, who, as they try to neutralise their true enemy, they shoot in the heart so many clubs which lie in their way (do not take this to mean that they possess any courage!). Every team feels the impact of this terrible officiating: Arsenal, United, Liverpool, Wolves, and so on and so on. And now you may very rightly point out, that I am merely coping with our loss tonight to Copenhagen. And you may be quite right…

I think I have conveyed my thoughts in a sufficiently nauseating and verbose way here. VAR should be done away with, since it has done nothing in the way of good.