VAR in the Permier League: Critics need to accept offside decisions made by technology as fair and consistent

If ever there was a case of be careful what you wish for, then VAR is proving just that with the unrelenting cascade of grumbling about the new technology in regards to the offside rule - so much so that we're now even seeing proposals to change the rules to suit.

All this will achieve will be to shift the blame, to divert attention from the front of a footballer's boot or tip of their shoulder to the heel of his boot and furthest extremity of their backside. What people are seemingly failing to realise is that the line has to be drawn somewhere, and it's about time for it to be drawn under these complaints.

Goal line technology, now wholeheartedly accepted as a blessing in the modern game, is a case of back and white - so too is offside, and for the life of me I cannot think why this just cannot be accepted. on this occasion I couldn't agree with Gary Neville more. I also approve of his use of the word 'malarkey' to describe it all.

I'm not massively pro VAR, and I also accept that having a goal ruled out for a stray toe doesn't help our game, but the two huge complaints about having actual human people decide these things were the lack of consistency and perceived bias towards bigger teams - the offside rule being presided over by technology solves both of those.

I wouldn't be against removing VAR from offisdes, but while it's in everyone knows where they stand - with technology comes an unbiased consistency, and isn't that what we all wanted after all? Subjectivity is where the confusion comes in, and errors get made, but right now in terms of offside we've taken the subjectivity out of the equation - so we should all be happy and stop trying to change the angle of attack, which simply won't make it any better.

Where to draw the line?

Wherever you have the line that decides if someone is offside or not, you have to have a line – simply moving it from the attacker’s toe to the defender’s toe simply isn’t a cure for the problem.

Yet again in football we’re merely shifting the blame. And football is the ultimate blame game – it’s always somebody’s fault, whether that’s a linesman, a referee on the field or a referee in a box room at Stockley Park. We’re just transferring our anger from one person to another.

Goal line technology is now just part of the fabric of the sport; nobody bats an eyelid when a goal is given, or ruled out, by just a couple of millimetres as it’s a “black and white” decision. Well, just what is offside if it’s not a black and white decision? You’re either offside or you’re not.

Last year’s thrilling Premier League title race was decided by a Sadio Mane no-goal (by 11.7mm) and a Sergio Aguero goal (by 29.51mm) that swung the balance in Manchester City’s favour. Just think about that for a second, especially the Aguero effort at the Etihad – Liverpool’s one and only defeat of the season.

Less than three centimetres separated Jurgen Klopp’s side from possible winning the league and going the full season unbeaten, and finishing second. And yet nothing: no outrage, no uproar, no widespread condemnation of technology ‘ruining our game’. Why? Because in the end the whole of the ball was not over the line.

It’s a black and white decision

Just what those VAR advocates who have now changed their tunes thought was going to happen when the technology was introduced, only they know. What else can they do but to drill down into the minutiae of the situation to see if a player is, by the laws of the game, offside or onside.

If there’s uproar and outrage when a goal is ruled out by a millimetre due to a player’s toe being slightly in advance of the last defender, that same uproar and outrage will be there when a big goal is allowed when 99.9% of a player is offside, but the very merest sliver of his boot heel is level with the left back 20 yards away. It will happen, be sure of it.

You can level what you want at VAR and the rules - and don’t get me wrong, I’m not a great fan of either - but the one thing you have to say is that it’s fair for all parties.

Those dubious, rage-inducing lines being drawn on TV screens from stray toes to bent knees don’t care about who is at home and who is away, whether bottom of the table have just scored at the league leaders, which angry manager lurks in the dugout.

Yes, there’s no common sense involved, but that also means there are no inconsistencies in decisions, there can be no bias, unconscious or otherwise, as offside is offside – it’s effectively a black and white decision.

So while having great goals chalked off by such small, seemingly insignificant, margins, at least those margins are consistent. Fans, players, managers and the media were forever complaining about a lack of consistency in the officiating before VAR.

“How is that not offside?" "How did the linesman not give that?" "Why do we never get the big decisions go for us?" Well, with VAR on the offside rule now all those issues have gone, and yet we’re still not happy! It’s almost as if we need something to moan about in football.

No margin for error

As for the plan put forward to introduce a ‘margin of error’ into the offside decisions – the ‘umpire’s call’ rule if you will – well, this one is pretty much as laughable as the Wenger rule. Say we have a 10cm margin of error, we’ll still have uproar when a player is 11cm offside won’t we?

Of course we will.

And that is my main beef with the outcry and the clamour to change the offside rule – it will not cure these issues, if they are issues in the first place. Football has always been decided by fine margins, tight offside calls have gone one way then the other, the only difference now is that we can study, zoom in, and fully discover just how fine these margins are.

Somebody will always take the blame, and we'll never get 100 per cent of the decisions right, but isn't that what football is all about? Changing the offside law may pacify a few dissenters on the aspect of allowing more goals and not "killing the game" but it won't be long before they turn again when goals go against their teams.

It's the nature of the beast - simply moving a few lines on a TV screen won't change that. It's time to accept offside for what it is. A black and white decision.

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