English football may yet come to realise it has much to learn at this World Cup. Whatever the case, English referees already have done.
Who would have thought that this tournament – with all its unforgivable excess, expense and exploitation – would have anything to teach us?
Already it’s clear that it has.
The World Cup has worked out how to use VAR technology properly and now it’s up to Howard Webb and his Premier League officials to follow suit.
We are a fortnight into this tournament and the football has been its best sell. Undoubtedly it’s been allowed to be that way by match officials who have not been over fussy with yellow and red cards and by VAR crews who seem determined to let the games flow.
After the first 40 games, there had been only 13 VAR interventions – an average of 0.33 per game. Oh to have such an uncluttered landscape in the Premier League.
The World Cup has worked out how to use VAR properly – and England must follow suit
In England phrases such as ‘clear and obvious error’ and ‘high bar for intervention’ have become meaningless and it’s gone a good way to ruining our game.
Every game in the Premier League has found itself at the mercy of VAR officials who wish to examine every decision in microscopic – and often inconclusive – detail no matter how long it takes and what impact it has on the rhythm of the match.
In the Premier League, goals can’t even be celebrated until signed off by the guys in the caravan in the car park.
Here in America, Canada and Mexico, the big dogs have been allowed to bark.
Lionel Messi, Erling Haaland, Kylian Mbappe, Vinicius Junior and Cristiano Ronaldo have all written their name through this tournament with a freedom reminiscent of the days when 24 cameras didn’t track their every move.
The hydration breaks at this Word Cup have been a disaster for its image and indeed the momentum and flow of the games. It has proved a disastrous idea and one that – for all the advertising money it reaps – should never be repeated.
However, there have been precious few VAR delays. The decisions made by referees on the field have largely been allowed to stand and that’s how it should be.
Two incidents from England’s draw with Ghana illustrate the point.
Howard Webb must take note – the decisions made by referees on-field have largely stood, and that is how it should be
Had Jordan Pickford’s dash from goal in the second-half in Boston happened in the Premier League, VAR would have examined it endlessly in a bid to find out who had initiated the contact between England’s goalkeeper and Ghana’s Prince Kwabena Adu.
The truth is that it was impossible to tell so the on field decision – in Pickford’s favour – was quickly allowed to stand.
Similarly when Ezri Konsa brought down the same player soon after, it may well have been a penalty.
Equally, some angles appeared to show Adi easing his knee into the England defender.
Play on.
It is refreshing and exactly what football needs. A Brazilian goal against Scotland was quickly found to have had its origins in a trip by Vinicius Junior on Jack Hendry. VAR spotted that one and allowed the match referee to rule out the goal quickly and with authority.
This is how VAR should work. At this World Cup it exists as a fail-safe, a mechanism to guard against catastrophic mistakes. The approach appears to be that – whenever possible – the VAR guys should be neither seen nor heard.
In the Premier League, VAR referees have somehow been allowed to take centre stage. Like teachers marking homework, they have become fundamental to each game that takes place.
Here at the World Cup the planet’s best officials have shown that it doesn’t have to be this way. Webb and his friends at the PGMOL need to watch and learn and it needs to be very different next season.
There really is no excuse.
Have you paid attention to the action so far? Try our World Cup quiz HERE
