The video assistant referee (VAR) is a terrible addition to football.
That is the view of super agent Rob Segal, who believes the VAR concept is damaging the ‘beautiful game’ and, in its current form, is like a ‘poor advertisement’ for the sport.
Since its introduction in March 2018, VAR has never been too far from the sports headlines. Often criticized for their application, football governing bodies have continually tried to adapt the rules of the game to suit their use.
Seemingly adamant that including VAR in sport is vital to its growth, leagues around the world seem a long way from making the decision to eliminate it.
However, the pressure to reverse the use of VAR has arguably never been higher and the latest high-profile person to highlight its problems has been Segal.
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Speaking about Spurs’ Champions League midweek game against Sporting Lisbon, which saw a four-minute delay that saw Harry Kane’s last game-winning shot being ruled out for the more marginal offside, Segal has not been contained in its evaluation.
“I really think the point of VAR is to shut down rather than allow,” Segal said in an exclusive interview.
“It’s like ruling out goals is their default position and I think that needs to be reversed.
“He’s really screwing up the game. We’re almost always talking about slippage that is almost immeasurable, it’s just ridiculous. The excitement is gone, especially when it takes four or five minutes to make a decision, as we saw between Spurs and Sporting Lisbon in the middle of the week.
After admitting that VAR is not necessarily biased towards certain teams, Segal took aim at manager Antonio Conte, who was understandably furious following his team’s canceled winning goal. Segal also revealed how all the players, not just the Spurs players, ‘hate’ VAR.
“I know Antonio Conte came out and almost echoed what I’m saying now, but you can’t really complain, can you?” Segal added.
“They got to the 2019 Champions League final because Manchester City were on the wrong end of VAR in the Quarters. This time it’s Spurs, so it’s swings and roundabouts, but it’s really bad publicity for the game in general, especially when you have a manager coming out and behaving so smugly. It’s very emotional and we know that, but when it comes to VAR it’s just not good for the game. Football is about talking points and there is hardly anything to talk about other than ‘was VAR good?’ and ‘Was VAR wrong?’ – the once ‘beautiful game’ has turned ugly.
“But let me say this: speaking as an expert and someone who works with players day in and day out, they hate it!
“The feeling of the ball hitting the back of the net for the players cannot be replicated and that emotion is slowly being taken away from them, so their frustrations, in a way, are even greater than the fans’.”
