- Clement lamented decisions that went against Norwich
- Argued that “teams need to practise with VAR”
- Is balance with VAR achievable?
With the season over, there have been a lot of incidents to cover. One thing that Norwich City fans might have missed was Philippe Clement’s interesting take on VAR.
Flashpoint
Unsurprisingly, one reason that Clement brought up VAR was an incident that became pivotal in both Norwich City and Ipswich Town’s seasons.
“With VAR it is not a penalty”, he lamented. While some can say this is frustration after a derby day defeat, it is not the first time that Clement has raised this as an issue.
Practise
Clement also believed that teams needed to get to grips with technology, describing the Championship’s aversion to VAR as “very weird” and that practise was needed in order to prepare for having to deal with it in the Premiership.
Vote
It appears that team in the Championship do not share Clement’s views.
There was an opportunity for the league to adopt the technology on a pitch-side level due to restriction around cameras in smaller stadiums.
While there was an argument this was less intrusive than the version used in the Premier League it was still decided it was not suited to the Championship.
Understandable
It is understandable that teams in the Championship are averse to VAR.
The league prides itself on its competitiveness and the relentless pace would be affected by referees checking incidents, even if they were only using it as a pitch-side reference tool as opposed to being
overseen by a remote fourth party.
Standards
That being said, issues around refereeing standards has not been restricted to frustrated managers. Fans and pundits have also pointed out issues with the quality of refereeing decisions throughout thr season.
This is where the difficulty comes in- people want more precise and consistent decisions but they don’t want to sacrifice the pace and immediacy of the game in order to achieve it.
No perfection
The sad fact is perfection is not on offer. VAR has been demonised and while it is understandable why fans can be frustrated by how it affects the pace of the game, there should be some form of reference available to a referee.
My personal opinion on this is that VAR should be a tool for the referee as opposed to an additional level of authority separate from the officials on the field.
A compromise between keeping the quality of the game and more consistency in decision making needs to at least be attempted, even if it may not be perfectly achieved.
