Martin Voogd
07/21/2021 11:43 AM
Clarín.com
sports
Updated 07/21/2021 11:56 AM
The popular saying goes that
the fault is not the pig but the one who feeds it
. The phrase, which applies to almost everything in life, fits perfectly to try to unravel what happens with VAR. Because, it is known:
the fault is not of the VAR
. The fault, without a doubt, is of those who handle it. Those who mishandle it. And there is no talk of intentions (good or bad). There is talk, plain and simple, of
malpractice
.
That, unfortunately, is visible to all when scenes like those of last night are experienced in Belo Horizonte, in the match between Atlético Mineiro and Boca, for the rematch of the knockout stages of the Copa Libertadores.
Or like the ones from a week ago in the Bombonera.
Or like the already endless list of situations that denature and transform a simple soccer game into an unbearable coffee table.
Why did VAR come to football?
The VAR arrived so that the regulation is applied as faithfully as possible, to reduce the margin of error, logical by the way, of the field referees in a football that is played at very high speed and so that the number of "injustices" is the least possible.
The dialogue between those in charge of the VAR and referee Ostojich determined that "Pulpo" González was offside.
/ Telam
Who can be against that?
No one.
Especially in these times when football is played to the limit, with most footballers trying to take advantage of everything.
Because it is no longer enough to throw a dribble or a feint before scoring a goal.
Now (for a long time, actually)
anything goes to win because it seems that losing is forbidden
.
Even reaching the vilest point of being disloyal to a colleague.
But that's another argument.
Because the discussion, at this time, forces us to ask what happens with the VAR.
Why did something that came to clarify end up confusing even more?
Why does something that should help everyone be calmer end up causing major scandals, like last night, with players and leaders who spent the night in a Belo Horizonte police station and who were still stranded in Brazil on Wednesday morning?
The Boca campus spent the night in a Belo Horizonte police station.
Photo: AP
And here comes the explanation.
The problem is not the technology.
Well applied technology helps make sports fairer.
It occurs in tennis with the Hawkeye.
It happens in rugby with the TMO.
And it also happens in professional sports in the United States.
The bugs are fixed and sanse finished.
There is no room for discussion.
The most curious thing of all is that it also happens in football.
In the European Championship, and not because everything that happens on the other side of the Atlantic is better, he repaired more than one unfair situation.
Unfair situations that become fair also in the main soccer leagues in the world.
The VAR is used, beyond any exception, fine.
And, above all, with great speed and extreme clarity.
But here in South America it doesn't happen.
The tool is the same.
The problem is that it is misused.
Training problems?
Can be.
Lack of credibility?
Also.
Everyone sees ghosts all the time.
They all believe that the other is cheating.
Everyone believes that there are black (or white, or red or blue) hands that manipulate reality.
And
that mistrust causes that even the perfect one can end up being imperfect
.
It happens that if one reviews a play, one will always find something that could be plausible to be observed as an irregularity -the goal disallowed for the Argentina National Team against Ecuador, for the Qualifiers, for example-.
The problem is the wrist.
The same wrist action that was accused of the referees without VAR applies to the referees who handle the VAR.
The riots in Boca's dressing room after the match with Mineiro.
Photo: tv capture
This difference in criteria is what makes the use of technology useless in these lands.
Because what came to make the game better ends up making it worse.
It is inadmissible that the ball is stopped for seven or eight minutes to make a decision.
And much worse if that decision that is made is, in the best of cases, debatable.
That anonymous man who invented the saying about pigs would never have imagined what phrase he would apply to talk about VAR.
Those who invented VAR must also not have imagined that technology would end up making soccer the worst of the pens.
Look also
Boca returns to the country this afternoon after the scandal in Belo Horizonte
The knee, the gluteus and the VAR of the fools
