VAR & Rule Tweaks - 21/22 Season [2024/25 Update]

BaZ87

BaZ87

BaZ87

Don
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There have been a number of tweaks to the rules and how VAR is going to be used in the coming season.
  • Offsides - Marginal offside decisions will now be given in favour of the attacker. When VAR add their 'tv lines' (thicker lines to make things clearer for viewers) to offside decisions, if the two lines overlap then the forward will be given onside. So even if the onfield decision is offside and VAR shows the forward is fractionally offside, the decision will be overturned and the goal awarded. According to Dale Johnson this will give forwards around a 5cm advantage. Another change with offside decisions & var is that we won't see the VAR process with the lines being drawn anymore - we'll just see the final image.
  • Accidental attacking handballs - Previously any accidental handball in the immediate build-up to a goal was an offence however now a goal will only be ruled out if the actual goalscorer handles the ball, regardless of intent.
  • General handballs - This has been watered down from what we saw at the start of last season (where everything was given as handball) and handballs should only be awarded if a players arms are clearly away from their body, making themselves a bigger target.
  • Soft Fouls - If what Mike Riley is saying is true then soft fouls are no longer a thing. Refs are being encouraged not to award marginal contact 'fouls' and VAR will only overturn the decision if they decide that the contact had a consequence and whether the attacker wasn't just looking to win a foul. I don't believe it'll happen but VAR is meant to be more willing to award pens when players are fouled but don't go down this coming season too.
No doubt we're going to see huge inconsistencies with these changes and people will be complaining as much as ever. The 'soft foul' change in particular is going to be a minefield. The best change of the lot is the fact we won't get to see the var process for offsides - I'm convinced that watching the process has caused most of the isses people have with VAR.
 
VAR will still be as inconsistent as it always is. I don’t see the ‘changes’ changing this as it always comes down to interpretation and the human factor.

I don’t see the point in it.
 
Any time you are measuring 2 moving players there will be issues. Giving the attacker '5cm" won't change those marginal calls much, it just means the fans of the defending team will feel aggrieved when its clear the player was offside based on VAR but they were "within the margin".

The idea of soft fouls is an interesting one. Referees are already given carte blanche to decide how serious contact was and whether something is a foul. Giving them the option to give a penalty after the player stays on their feet is an odd one too. Can't see too many players relying on it.

Either way, I'm sure there will be almost as many issues with these changes.
 
I agree re the margin of error causing an issue. Can you imagine a big game being decided on a goal that the lino flagged as offside and var shows was offside but the goal is awarded because it was only 4cm off :D Knowing our luck with VAR it will happen to us :(

And I don't believe for one moment that officials (or var) will award a foul when a player stays on his feet. This issue has been going on for as long as I can remember and imo has contributed to the diving issue. It's just human nature, nobody wants to make a controversial decision unless they're forced to and a player staying on his feet is reason enough for an official to not make a decision they don't want to make.
 
BaZ87 said:
I agree re the margin of error causing an issue. Can you imagine a big game being decided on a goal that the lino flagged as offside and var shows was offside but the goal is awarded because it was only 4cm off :D Knowing our luck with VAR it will happen to us :(

And I don't believe for one moment that officials (or var) will award a foul when a player stays on his feet. This issue has been going on for as long as I can remember and imo has contributed to the diving issue. It's just human nature, nobody wants to make a controversial decision unless they're forced to and a player staying on his feet is reason enough for an official to not make a decision they don't want to make.
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So Ben Chillwell's goal would have counted against us in the FA Cup final? What a complete joke.

You are either offside or onside.
 
mysticsniper said:
So Ben Chillwell's goal would have counted against us in the FA Cup final? What a complete joke.

You are either offside or onside.
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I don't think Chillwell's was close enough to have been given but you will get goals given that VAR shows to be marginally off.
 
Can't see VAR being used to make any kind of football enjoyable, it's killing the game for me checked with MySky to cancel the sports but turns out I'm contracted until December so I'll just get rid then
 
The worst aspect of VAR as a viewer is not being able to trust what you see wrt goals.

And it affects the spectacle too: one of the England goals in the Euros Raheem Sterling (iirc) said he didn't celebrate as he was waiting for VAR to overturn it.

I'm not sure a 5cm allowance is enough anyway. My feeling is VAR should only be invoked when there is a clear error from the onfield officials. Something you can spot watching a standard replay.
 
I've mentioned this a few times over the last 6 months but a new, semi automated VAR for offsides is being trialed at the Club World Cup with a view for it to be in place in time for the Qatar WC:


Long story short, limb tracking technology will be used to (almost) instantly inform VAR if a player is offside and mean that all they have to determine is whether a player is active or not. The end result should be that almost all offside decisions will be resolved in a matter of seconds.
 
BaZ87 said:
Long story short, limb tracking technology will be used to (almost) instantly inform VAR if a player is offside and mean that all they have to determine is whether a player is active or not. The end result should be that almost all offside decisions will be resolved in a matter of seconds.
Click to expand...

Thank the lord!
 
BaZ87 said:
I've mentioned this a few times over the last 6 months but a new, semi automated VAR for offsides is being trialed at the Club World Cup with a view for it to be in place in time for the Qatar WC:


Long story short, limb tracking technology will be used to (almost) instantly inform VAR if a player is offside and mean that all they have to determine is whether a player is active or not. The end result should be that almost all offside decisions will be resolved in a matter of seconds.
Click to expand...

Much better, remving the idiot in charge of the lines where most the contentious calls have come from, anything to make it more in line with the goal tech is a good thing.
 
It's a logical progression to try and automate as much as possible any decisions that are based on 'facts' rather than 'intent' i.e. did the ball cross the line, when the ball was passed how many opposition players were between the player and the goal, etc. It's one reason I thought those additional goalline officials were a bit silly, putting a human in charge of an activity that a computer would be very good at after not having a human in place for over 100 years, and having the tech available to automate it.

Will make being an assistant ref pretty boring though I guess.
 
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