Critics take issue with time taken for VAR to reach decisions

Gary Lineker’s warning that the VAR could “suck the life” out of the game seems to be ringing true in the A-League.

Sydney’s Alex Wilkinson, left, and Adelaide’s Ben Halloran and Al Hassan Toure discuss a pending VAR decision on the big screen. Picture: Sarah Reed

England legend Gary Lineker’s warning that the VAR could “suck the life” out of the game seems to be ringing true in the A-League with coaches, players and fans blowing up over the time being taken to make decisions.

The opening round of the new A-League season gave fans a glimpse into the frustration felt by English Premier League supporters around the way the technology is interrupting the flow of the game and the newly implemented Hawkeye system that is taking off-side calls to a microscopic level.

A-League referees adviser Strebre Delovski has defended lengthy VAR delays, arguing decisions can’t be rushed when there’s “no margin for error”.

Delovski empathised with the frustrations but said the VAR’s main priority was to get it right.

“It takes time to review and it takes some time to get the line (for off-side) up,” Delovski said.

“It’s impossible to get the camera angles from the operator straight up.

“We’ll look at all the camera angles available before making the decision. It’d be great if we could do it in five seconds — and I understand people want the game to flow — but ultimately we’ve made the correct decisions.

“Sometimes you have to look at it a couple of times to be 100 per cent sure the decision is wrong.

“We don’t want to rush something just for the sake of time. There’s no margin for error, we’ve got to be spot on.”

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An online poll in The Daily Telegraph showed 84 per cent of readers thought the VAR was taking too long to make calls.

The VAR made three interventions in Sydney FC’s season-opening 3-2 win over Adelaide United on Friday night, and made the correct decision all three times.

Irritation expressed by players, coaches and viewers came mainly through the length of time it took for a review.

Play continued for almost a minute after Michael Jakobsen’s handball for Adelaide inside the penalty area before referee Alex King finally stopped proceedings to review footage on the recommendation of Kris Griffiths-Jones in the VAR room.

King subsequently awarded Sydney a penalty.

It also took one minute and 16 seconds for Kosta Barbarouses’s goal for Sydney to be overturned after he was called off-side using Hawkeye.

New Adelaide United coach Gertjan Verbeek, who said he has always been pro-VAR, said the system was taking a “crazy” amount of time to settle contentious calls.

“But it’s getting more and more a huge impact in the game,” he said. “Five minutes … to watch if it’s a penalty or not — it’s crazy.”

Sydney FC coach Steve Corica agreed with his Adelaide counterpart on the time factor.

“It is taking probably a little bit too long,” Corica said. “But they obviously want to make sure they get the right decisions.”

On Saturday, Western Sydney and Central Coast continued playing for even longer before Iranian referee Alireza Faghani halted the game to review a possible handball from Dylan Fox.

He awarded a penalty — which ultimately was the wining goal in a 2-1 result — to the Wanderers, though it was not until three minutes after the incident took place.

“It took a long time,” said Wanderers coach Markus Babbel.

“I think it was handball — I saw it on the big screen. For me, it was clear it was a penalty.”

The quest for perfection at the expense of spontaneity has polarised the international game, prompting concerns from the likes of Lineker, now the BBC’s main soccer TV presenter in the UK.

A-League boss Greg O’Rourke said he was happy with Hawkeye’s rollout, and expected the VAR process to quicken over time.

THE DAILY TELEGRAPH