Bashing the VAR is a cheap hit but the video refs were hardly the worst performers of the weekend, writes Tom Smithies

IT is frustrating that an engaging opening round of A-League football is again being overshadowed by the VAR, while other poor performers escape some deserved scrutiny, writes TOM SMITHES.

It was referee Kurt Ams’s mistake, not the VAR’s. (Robert Cianflone/Getty Images)

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KURT Ams, the referee at the centre of the Melbourne derby controversy, will have time on his hands to reflect this coming weekend — but he’s not the only one who might want to take a step back.

Ams won’t referee an A-League game as penance for deciding that Bruno Fornaroli had been fouled in the derby, and then upgrading the freekick to a penalty after seeing video of the incident at the suggestion of his video assistant (VAR).

But it’s dispiriting that after finally getting through the eternal damnation that is the A-League’s pre-season, an opening round of buzzing, open football has been overshadowed by the VAR once more. Because from a footballing standpoint, the VAR actually did very little that was contentious.

It was referee Kurt Ams’s mistake, not the VAR’s. (Robert Cianflone/Getty Images)

In the Melbourne derby, if anything the VAR dropped a fairly strong hint to Ams, telling him that “if you’re going to give that as a foul, then it’s inside the box”, at which point Ams checked on sideline video where the incident had occurred but not whether it was actually a foul.

That’s human error by Ams, for which he has been dropped. Nothing will take that element out of the game.

But love it or hate it, the VAR system is going nowhere. FIFA think it was the best thing about the World Cup, and want its use to become the norm in leagues everywhere. The idea that the A-League would abandon it mid-season is fanciful.

The VAR does not discriminate against the finer points. (Tim Pascoe)

It would help if those passing comment familiarised themselves with key elements. VARs have no discretion on offsides, no deciding if an offside call is a “clear and obvious error”. A player is offside or not, and the VAR has to make that call.

John Aloisi’s querying of this after Brisbane’s draw with the Mariners was a cute diversion from the fact his star No 9, Adam Taggart, had missed a glut of chances. That’s an old trick from coaches, and it’s usually effective.

It’s also worth remembering that any part of a player’s body that he can score with can be offside. Last season a goal was disallowed by VAR in Serie A because someone’s toes were offside. Two of the three offsides given by the VAR in the Brisbane game were fractional but all three were correct.

The one game where the VAR overreached himself was in Wellington, when Mitch Nichols was judged to have been fouled off the ball — technically he was but similar fouls in other games weren’t dealt with in the same manner.

It is clear the debate won’t go away, however. (Jono Searle/Getty Images)

That comes down to VARs with the self-confidence not to become involved except where absolutely necessary, and it’s interesting to note that Nick Waldron, the VAR in Wellington, works in isolation at Westpac Stadium rather than in the centralised bunker because Sky TV’s feed from New Zealand can’t be delivered to the bunker.

If you are to look at the opening round dispassionately, there were stuttering, uncertain performances everywhere, as always happens at the start of a season as players find their rhythm. Oriol Riera and Chris Ikonomidis missed sitters, Andrew Redmayne got his positioning all wrong.

The same was true of Ams, but how many of those playing badly will be dropped this weekend?

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Originally published as Bashing the VAR is a cheap hit but the video refs were hardly the worst performers of the weekend, writes Tom Smithies