TIRED OF VAR ALREADY?

Ronaldo and Iran embroiled in video review controversy

SEND the booth dwellers home and bin the replays — Very Abysmal Reviewing is not fit for purpose. Thanks to the last of a series of dodgy decisions, Iran almost pulled off a fairytale.

The reality, however, is that had they progressed football, along with Portugal, would have been the losers on a shambolic night which brought embarrassment to this wonderful World Cup.

With an already-ruined, stopstart tussle entering injury time Portugal, for whom Cristiano Ronaldo had missed a dubious VAR-awarded penalty, appeared to have secured progression and the group’s top spot thanks to Ricardo Quaresma’s first-half wonder strike.

Then, following yet another woeful video intervention, Iran were handed a ludicrous penalty when Southampton’s Cedric Soares was deemed to have handled the ball in the area.

Soares was not even half a yard away from Sardar Azmoun when the Iranian’s knock down struck his arm, which was not raised. Nobody appealed.

Strangely, Paraguayan referee Enrique Caceres went for a touchline confab. Unbelievably, he then put a square in the air and pointed to the spot.

Sub Karim Ansarifard duly put it into the top corner and there was, ridiculously, hope for the Iranians. They almost had their dream when a deflected effort found Mehdi Taremi around eight yards out. The midfielder’s shot struck the side-netting. Had it gone in they would have been through. Perhaps Caceres and his pals breathed a sigh of relief.

This was the clearest evidence yet that, in its current format, VAR is more trouble than it is worth. Slow motion, as we have so often seen in other sports, can distort reality. Alan Shearer summed it up.

“Farcical, absolutely shambolic,” he told BBC One viewers. “The referee is a very lucky guy. If Iran scored in the last minute there would be chaos.”

The Newcastle legend, never one to stand up for defenders, continued: “Every time it hits a hand it’s a pen? If you’re going to get games like this then it’s an absolute farce.”

Shearer was not wrong. Put simply, VAR turned what should have been a spectacle into a laughing stock. Not that both sets of players covered themselves in glory.

You even ended up having sympathy for Ronaldo, who was given a questionable yellow card following another consultation after his arm delicately brushed the chin of Iran defender Morteza Pouraliganji. Not that former Portugal coach Carlos Queiroz agreed.

“In the rules, an elbow is a red card, it doesn’t matter if it’s Lionel Messi or Ronaldo,” the Iran boss said before bemoaning a lack of transparency.

Qualification was at last assured for Portugal, albeit with an upcoming tie against fellow masters of the dark arts Uruguay rather than hosts Russia, but Ronaldo was far from impressed.

“I understand, it’s normal. The best players in the world face that when there isn’t an opportunity to really make it happen,” said Portugal boss Fernando Santos. “That hurts a lot more to them than to other players. They always want to win. They want to be the best and refuse to fail, and when they fail they get very upset.”

Santos, however, wants to concentrate on the future.

“The important thing is to think about the (round of 16) match, think about the game, get to know your adversaries and then to get well prepared mentally and physically. Uruguay have high quality and top-notch players and they’re all excellent — but Portugal too. We have our weapons and we’re going to try to win.” Santos said of his team’s progress.