Stan Collymore believes World Cup chiefs ought to at least have considered ditching VAR for the knockout phase of the tournament after another shambolic week for in-game technology.
Lionel Messi was awarded a penalty by Dutch referee Danny Makkelie and his VAR team after the slightest of contacts from Wojciech Szczesny when Argentina faced Poland on Wednesday, with the decision widely condemned by ex-professionals and supporters alike.
And things were just as bad 24 hours later when Japan beat Spain 2-1 to send Germany crashing out of the tournament with VAR ruling the ball was still in play when all but about a millimetre of it had crossed the line in the build-up to Ritsu Doan’s 48th-minute equaliser.
Former England and Liverpool star turned Mirror Sport columnist Collymore was a huge advocate of VAR when it was introduced. But he has now changed his mind completely and would love to see it banished from the game.
He said: “We’re supposed to have the best referees in the world at a World Cup and particularly in the latter stages of the tournament, so there’s a persuasive argument after these past few days that we should have ditched VAR after the group phase ended.
“We’re now getting into the realms of VAR being able to be made into what people want it to be, and if you can do that then somewhere down the line there is going to be foul play, and that’s my worry.
"I’m not saying that was what happened in the Argentina-Poland game, that was just rank-bad officiating. In fact, Danny Makkelie’s decision to award Messi the penalty was the worst VAR decision I have ever seen.
“It’s a good job I’m not a man who thinks Messi might have some extra-importance in this World Cup given it’s probably his last or that he plays for a Qatar-backed club because otherwise I might start to let conspiracy theories run wild in my head.
"But the fact that one of the better referees in the tournament went to the monitor, looked at it, talked to his VAR panel and still awarded a spot-kick tells me the standard of refereeing and VAR back-up in that moment was dreadful.
“The decision was unfathomable and made no sense in football law whatsoever. I’d go as far as to say that wasn’t a penalty in any game of football that has taken place at any level anywhere in the world in the last 150-odd years. And we didn’t have to wait long for another VAR howler, either.
"I can’t believe we have now got ourselves into a situation whereby all but a millimetre of the ball has crossed the white line yet it is still deemed to be in. Look, I don’t really give two hoots that Germany are out, that’s great from an English perspective, but it still seems morally wrong and lacking in common sense that that ball was ruled in.
“It’s the same as a traffic warden coming along and saying, ‘I’m going to give you an £80 fine because your wheel is 0.00001mm over the line’, because we all know how we’d feel about that. It would be fairer if we changed the rule and said if one millimetre of the ball has crossed the line then it’s out.
"It’s not like players haven’t already got enough room to do what they need to do on a pitch that’s around 105metres by 68m. And if we chipped each ball we could have the equivalent of a laser tripwire running around the perimeter to tell us when the ball had breached it.
"I’d have been really angry if England had been knocked out that way and those two decisions have just made VAR again look like what it is — a jobsworth absurdity.”
