sport news The simple fix that would stop VAR ruining football for fans: IAN HERBERT ... trends now
It's hard to overstate quite what a gift it was to be at Dublin's Aviva Stadium just after 5.30pm on Saturday evening, as Ireland's rugby union team burst into life and drove relentlessly for a Six Nations championship title which had been hanging in the balance.
There was the magisterial Bundee Aki in full flow, the first glorious rendition of the Fields of Athenry, the descending sun casting the place in an eerie light. And then the referee, Matthew Carley calmly and confidently chalking off two Irish tries in quick succession, without the remotest impact on the game's momentum or the experience of those gathered inside that bouncing place.
Those decisions carried a fiendish complexity, with Ireland's Tadhg Furlong and Robbie Henshaw buried in a forest of players as each made to touch the ball down. Yet there was a speed and transparency about the decision-making which told you rugby union is a sport that respects those who have paid out to be there. The conversations between Carley and the camera analysts making the assessment were broadcast across the stadium, as they have been for over 20 years under the sport's TMO system. The decision-making actually belonged to those spectators in that place.
How brutal was the return to a football reality, the following day, as lumpen, soul-deadening VAR laughed in the faces of all who had forked out to watch West Ham play Aston Villa.
Did it really happen? Did it actually take five minutes and 37 seconds to decide whether Tomas Soucek had handled the ball before scoring what would have been West Ham's winner? Yes, of course - though it's a measure of how sanitised we've become to this entire Godforsaken system that a VAR delay of record proportions has barely entered the national conversation.
There were difficult decisions for officials to make in Ireland's win over Scotland - but there was a speed and transparency which showed rugby is a sport that cares about its fans
By contrast, the decision to disallow Tomas Soucek's goal took VAR officials five minutes and 37 seconds
PMGOL is facing having to explain to the Premier League the reason for the lengthy delay
The high-and-mighty upper reaches of our football are overseen by people who would laugh in your face if you suggested rugby might actually offer them lessons. But 72 two hours after West Ham supporters had their afternoon wrecked, we still don't know why the decision took so long.
Word came through from Premier League HQ on Tuesday that the delay at the London Stadium would be discussed with PGMOL 'at their next conversation about operational matters.' If you really wanted proof the league is too busy selling 'the product' to broadcasters to be bothered about the child in Row S, or the lifelong family of fans in Row B, then there you had it.
Many have shared this pain. My friend was on Goodison's Gwladys Street with his father, when Everton's injury-time equaliser went in against Spurs recently. 'Impossible to fully lose yourself in the moment because of the VAR check,' he messaged to say. Well, the solutions are simple for any with a fervent wish for something better.
Broadcast the discussions of the referee and his video assistants, so that supporters are not left in the dark. Impose a three-minute cut-off on all VAR decisions. (Because what cannot be decided in that time is not a 'clear
