More and more often you strike out with your arms, with a slightly confused expression, and say: “And what do I do with that information?” Suddenly this week I sit in front of the TV and not only say it once, but repeat it with the stubbornness of a fool.
When one replay after another, in a football match after a football match in the Allsvenskan, shows how the referees missed, not seen, misjudged certainly difficult situations, decided match after match without really knowing about it themselves, well, then you sit there with your forty replays on the couch showing that there would have been no goal, no punishment. And as I said: What am I going to do with that information?
We who are yearlings with television remember what a fantastic invention the replay machine was, well, they said so – and maybe it was a machine? “Unbelievable,” we said to each other anyway. Up in one corner, a small r always flashed, which meant: “This is a repeat!” (We were a little stupid at the time, yes.)
My point: After VAR, the replay has completely played its role in the countries and leagues that decided to stay in the 19th century, and play football “as it has always been played”.
Seeing a replay with a VAR perspective has become completely meaningless, in a completely new way. Getting confirmation that the judge made a mistake, handing out points to the wrong team, becomes a hundred times more frustrating with the knowledge that in other circumstances justice could have been imposed. It happens every day in leagues around us. But in Sweden we choose not to do the right thing.
The question is soon relevant: Do we play the same game? Is it the same sport?
Malmö gets a misjudged free kick against them overtime which probably means two points lost – what does the loss look like after 30 rounds? Hammarby gets a horrible goal approved against Varberg, a player stands up to one and a half meters offside when he gets the ball. No action. A wildly fighting Degerfors is blown away by an almost overly clear penalty against Djurgården in the closing seconds – what does the lost stick mean when the relegation is summed up?
If someone says “it evens out” I get mad.
Hockey referees and handball referees use TV pictures. Tennis players and volleyball players can challenge a verdict.
In the Allsvenskan in football, people obviously love to sit at home and watch reruns that show that one verdict after another should have been challenged and reviewed. And that the possibility exists, it is called WHERE, but no then, the ball was played better in Gunnar Nordahl’s time, and the ball is round and – as I said, it always evens out over say 25 years.
Thanks for that, does it feel safe?
Football is getting faster, everything happens at a terrible pace, the players do not directly help to keep clean: They take every chance to fool a referee, fake an injury, film a penalty. No player scruples at all.
And what do the judges do? What can they do? I understand if the job is soon judged to be impossible, and unbearable – after each match, they are largely hung out as incompetent. And the question is whether they will not only get worse and worse by international standards – if you do not judge with VAR on a daily basis, it will soon become impossible to go on international assignments, where judges can really learn, be inspired, move on.
Do not actually want to see a single replay on TV that shows how my or any other team has been blown on or given points to be donated – for the simple reason that it should remain as it always has been. Turn off that damn replay. Now!
The referees want VAR, the Swedish Football Association wants VAR (but do not dare to make a decision), most clubs in the Allsvenskan are cautiously positive – the hard core of conservative fans do not want. And in this situation, it seems that it is they who decide, completely without sensible arguments. Slightly absurd.
Read more sports in TV chronicles by Johan Croneman:
The TV theater gives “Greece-Sweden – a tragedy in two acts”
Hegerfors was a gifted language – today commentators should only be able to hold the box
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