VAR: Tottenham boss Ange Postecoglou would ditch system ‘in current form’
Last updated on .From the section Tottenham
Tottenham boss Ange Postecoglou would like to banish the video assistant referee system “in its current form”.
Spurs benefited from VAR officials failing to overturn a wrongly flagged offside decision when Luis Diaz scored for Liverpool with their match at 0-0.
Postecoglou’s side won last Saturday’s game 2-1 after an injury-time own goal.
Asked whether he would get rid of VAR, the Spurs manager said: “I would, in its current form. I just don’t think that technology’s ready for our game.”
Referees’ body PGMOL released the audio of discussions between the match officials around Diaz’s disallowed goal on Tuesday.
Video assistant referee Darren England said the check was “perfect”, before swearing when he realised a mistake had been made.
From this weekend, PGMOL said VARs will confirm the outcome of any decisions with their assistant VARs before notifying the on-field officials to prevent a repeat mistake.
“I’ve got absolutely zero against goalline technology, that’s a no-brainer because that’s quite significant, but it works for our game,” added Postecoglou.
“I just think our game is unique and I know people say, ‘well, let’s get referees explaining their decisions’. Oh my God. Seriously? Could you imagine sitting there listening to a referee explain every decision on the game.”
Postecoglou drew a comparison between refereeing in football and how NFL officials communicate, and how long that can take.
“I’m going to the gridiron on Sunday, I love it, I love American football,” he said. “It’s three and a half hours mate. Do you want to sit through three and a half hours of listening?
“I just think with VAR at the moment, we think it’s going to eliminate [errors] and the more we use it, I think the worse it’s going to get.
“It was there for the clear and obvious error. It seems like everything now. Yellow cards, fouls, corners, everything’s getting scrutinised. It’s not our game.
“We’re not rugby, we don’t have those stoppages. What I always loved about England was the frenetic pace of football.
“Why are we trying to take that out? Now, I think part of the consequence of last week was that none of us liked it when they were taking so long to make a decision and it sounded like last week they were rushing into a decision.
“That suggests to me that I don’t think the technology in its current form is suitable to our game, but I know I will be in a minority with that and my role within that is to accept that whatever my feelings are on it, ultimately, there’s still going to be an arbitrator of decisions.”
What does Postecoglou think of a replay against Liverpool?
Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp has said replaying the game against Spurs would be “the right thing to do” because of the unprecedented nature of the mistake made by the VAR.
BBC Sport understands there is no prospect of the Premier League considering a replay.
“I think Jurgen’s said that and maybe that was taken a little bit out of context,” said Postecoglou.
“My view is when you’re talking about a replay, there’s got to be some sort of threshold and I don’t think a mistake is a threshold for that.
“It was a unique mistake, people have used an unprecedented mistake and I agree with that, but it was still a mistake.
“So, if your threshold for replays is mistakes by individuals, that’s 365 games a year, I reckon.”
