Pitchforks were brandished, torches were lit and tinfoil was licked late into a Saturday night, when the air hung heavy with conspiracy. The Premier League was having its latest – perhaps greatest – crisis of confidence in officialdom. It turns out that “video evidence”, as it was quaintly called before the launch of VAR as a fated initialism, is no cure-all solution for refereeing elite football matches.
“We need the VAR, now. I think we need the VAR,” was Rafael Benítez’s reaction to Mike Dean sending off DeAndre Yedlin after his Newcastle team lost against Wolves in December 2018. Five years on, Dean is a television personality and Stockley Park, VAR headquarters, has gained the notoriety that might be attached to a house of ill repute. It is difficult to imagine any manager – including Benítez himself – being so evangelical about a system that, in England at least, seems incapable of learning from its many mistakes.
