DAVID COOTE,

quite literally, was not fit to referee. He was one of two Premier League officials who failed FIFA’s conditioning test at a recent training camp in Majorca before passing at the second attempt this week. Andy Madley was the other. Being able to keep up with play is a vital attribute for officials but, at the weekend, Coote proved no more able sitting in front of a television. Coote was the VAR who missed Giovani Lo Celso’s stamp on Cesar

Azpilicueta despite access to repeated replays. In an unprecedented move, the Premier League admitted his mistake later, but did not take him off the late kick-off, Leicester versus Manchester City. Far from solving problems, VAR has exposed English football’s poor standards by removing the mitigating factors that have shielded officials for so long. It is hard to referee a game in real time. Referees don’t have the advantage of slow-motion replays like we do. But that has changed. They can watch it all, first in real time and then slowed and dissected in such a way that offside can be judged on individual toes. And they’re getting it wrong. Regularly wrong. Obviously wrong. This isn’t good enough. VAR was only ever going to be as strong as the humans implementing it, but the years of making excuses for the faults of match officials lulled us into false security. Given the benefit of comprehensive visuals and time to make the call, we believed our referees would deliver. We were wrong. If Coote cannot recognise what Lo Celso did, he isn’t good enough. Not in real time, not in slow motion, not running about, not sitting down. In time for next season, serious thought should be given to allowing the best of former officials to qualify as VARs. The current system isn’t working. The Premier League finds a solution or technology’s reputation will not recover. . ORIGINAL COPY . ORIGINAL COPY . ORIGINAL COPY . ORIGINAL COPY ORIGINAL COPY