More problems than it solved

WHEN I last wrote about VAR, I asked: ‘What will go wrong next?’ In the sixth minute, the video assistant referee chalked off a goal for Erik Lamela after ruling that Fernando Llorente had committed a foul in the buildup. As that foul was neither clear nor obvious, the VAR should not have got involved. However, VAR was spot on in the 25th minute in overturning the decision to give Spurs a free-kick outside the box. As the contact on Kieran Trippier continued into the area, a penalty was rightly awarded. On-field referee Paul Tierney was then correct to penalise Son Heung-min for stopping and restarting his penalty run-up. Because Son scored from the spot-kick, VAR had to check and confirmed Tierney’s decision to book Son and disallow the goal. But as this game showed, VAR creates as many problems as it solves... if not more.