With the introduction of the VAR, football faces an all-too familiar challenge of adapting to change. While it has been brought to help the referees make lesser mistakes, it’s presence has given referees and players more license to pressurise the officials.
Roy Hodgson hit on something important a few weeks ago. Speaking after Crystal Palace’s draw against Newcastle, he was frustrated with a reporter trying to get a comment on a contentious refereeing decision. The former England manager wanted to talk about his team’s performance, not “what happened in 40 seconds of the 95 minutes.” Hodgson is sick to death of talking about referees, and I quite agree with him. Every week brings a new penalty kerfuffle that is debated endlessly and tediously. The introduction of the video assistant referee has only made the matter worse by making discussion even more tedious.
VAR was supposed to eliminate controversial calls but has only made everyone angrier. It is now abundantly clear the issue is not referees and their decisions, but, rather, our own partisanship and immaturity. VAR has exposed the need for a change in perspective.
For me, that perspective shift came from becoming a parent. Fatherhood, for example, has profoundly shifted my view on referees. Thanks to my new life experience, I have noticed how much the referee resembles a parent disciplining children. I do not mean discipline in the sense of punishment, but, rather, an opportunity for learning and growth. After all, the word “discipline,” I am told by every parenting book on the subject, comes from the root word discipulus, meaning “pupil.”