VAR was supposed to provide clarity... and it hasn’t done

THIS may be a time for looking back at the departing year, but in 2020 it is not a task that conveys much pleasure.

Embroiled in controversy as so many have been.

RACISM

Detestable as it is, this is nothing new. The Three Degrees in Ron Atkinson’s Manchester United team were victims.

Remember John Barnes backheeling a banana?

But football may be no more than evidence of an attitude that only finds safe expression when it can be displayed in the anonymity of a group or on social media where the author is too cowardly to sign a name.

It could be that sport is a convenient platform that conceals an innate facet of the British character - we just do not like foreigners in general.

That is why the majority of the population voted in favour of Brexit.

We are straying into the territory of the sociologist. If sport wants to make a contribution there are better ways than taking the knee, a gesture that is deeply felt but has become almost meaningless through repetition.

Someone needs to step forward to force the issue, naming names. Guaranteed support for such action from the Football Association would help. It would be a long battle that would need a brave spokesman.

RETURN OF THE SPECTATORS

By a long way the most misleading headline of the year was the one that claimed - The Fans Are Back.

At best it could have reported that a few supporters would be admitted to a select few venues.

The choice of where or when was not sport’s to confer.

The decision would come down from government and would be dictated by health issues, namely the coronavirus.

For what it was worth, the gesture was accepted with gratitude.

The lucky clubs were left to work out for themselves how to apply it.

For example how would the few fans be selected? Would those who saw a game live be barred from the next, and who would be checking?

Meanwhile, the belief in a level playing field would be suspended.

No-one disputes the advantage of having live voices raised with a game’s ebb and flow, a boost that would be denied to some but through no fault on their part.

Until all the gates are open to everyone this will remain an irritant as much as a blessing.

VAR

Football said it wanted certainty of justice being seen to be done, and the Video Assistant Referee was the best they could come up with.

Is the solution satisfactory? Not really.

It wasn’t exactly the kind of justice they had been hoping for.

Take offside. Without the commentator’s guidance does anyone watching from the sofa know precisely how it is being applied?

A player can gain an advantage by being offside and that should not be allowed.

But what if he was offside by three inches of his knee? VAR is there to reinforce the laws.

Justice doesn’t come into it. In the end it comes down to one man’s opinion of another man’s opinion.

And the same is true of handball. VAR may be a help but it is not proof.

This is part of a more troubling move.

However much money may be at stake, the laws are not made solely for the top tier.

They govern the way we play, whether in the Premier League or the park. There must be no gap between them.

Remembering that would be a good way to start 2021.

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