Breeze's VAR verdict: Be careful what you wish for

As football convulses in controversy as a consequence of the vagaries of VAR, former A-League referee Matthew Breeze has this message to those who demanded the technology in the first place: “Be careful what you wish for.”

Kurt Ams consults the VAR during an A-League match

Kurt Ams consults the VAR during an A-League match Source: Getty Images

With fans, players and coaches in despair over microscopic investigations which stand accused of violating the spirit of the sport, Breeze - who refereed the 2009 AFC Champions League final and A-League grand final the same year - believes there can be no going back.

Goals ruled out by shoulder blade widths, errant toe nail placement, the tip of a hip or an accidental ball-to-hand - accompanied by interminable time delays - are the game’s new bane, killing spontaneity and draining away joy.

But Breeze, a police prosecutor turned barrister, insists the jury - in this instance, FIFA - won’t be reopening the case on whether VAR is fit for purpose, despite the tumult of outrage over its implementation.

A member of FFA’s disciplinary panel as recently as 2017, Breeze told The World Game: “I think we need to go back to the concept of correcting clear and obvious errors (VAR’s original remit).

“However the problem is you are either offside or you’re not. It’s not so much a matter of interpretation.

“The football community clamoured for years for video reviews to try and stop howlers from match officials - and it’s now a case of be careful what you wish for.

“It can work perfectly well, as in the case of (Sydney FC’s) Rhyan Grant’s (recent) sending off (against Melbourne City) when he was initially just given a yellow card and then a red on review.

“That’s what VAR was brought in for - the howling mistake.

“But they have to do something about the offside situation. That’s for sure.”

Quite what though - and Breeze doesn’t support a change of the offside laws - remains a conundrum.

“When you talk about clear and obvious in relation to VAR reviews for offsides, what exactly does that mean? he added.

“How many millimetres is that? At least if you do it this way it’s the closest you manage to taking out the element of human interpretation.”

Breeze noted a call by English TV pundit Gary Neville, the former Manchester United defender, for VAR to be scrapped for all offside calls.

But he doesn’t see that as a workable solution either.

“You can’t not have it for offsides because sometimes referees make big mistakes and guys are a metre or so onside and the goal is ruled out,” he added.

“But there’s clearly an issue when you’ve got the same level of anger now about VAR, and its threat to the game, as you had about referees and match officials before VAR.

“Every year in the A-League people said ‘it’s the worst standard of refereeing ever’.

“Now that’s been replaced with ‘VAR is killing the game’.

“The football world is basically having to suck up what they’ve complained about for years.

“They wanted to make sure there was never another Hand of God goal and to get rid of human error.

“But the hard luck story and swings-and-roundabouts nature of the game was part of its fabric.

“We wanted to create perfection where everything was black and white and we have instead just created a new controversy.”

Breeze remains an “in principle” supporter of VAR with its geometric lines and cold introspection, adding he’d loved to have had the chance to take a second look at line-ball calls on a pitch-side TV monitor during his sometimes controversial career.

He views VAR as an extension of the technology which controls many aspects, adding: “In a way it’s reflective of the way we live in general.

“Technology dictates so many aspects of our lives - and VAR is here to stay. Once FIFA brings in something like this, knowing how careful and conservative they are, there won’t be any turning back.

“I wonder who will be the first coach or player to twig and say ‘over the years the benefit of doubt went to the attacking player. Now I’ll need to give myself that extra half metre to take away the risk of being caught offside’.”

The minefield of handball decisions, and the opaque nature of the ever-more-complex laws, make Breeze, who refereed in the A-League for six seasons, happy he’s no longer packing a whistle.

“There are a series of factors to take into account (when making a call) and how a referee can do that in a split second is beyond me,” he said.

“At least when I was refereeing you could rely on your gut instinct. 

“There were a few factors like distance away from the ball, unnatural position and speed of the ball ... and you could compute those things pretty quickly and more often than not come up with the right decision.

“Now I really feel for referees. There was the recent incident where Western Sydney’s Daniel Georgievski turned away from the ball with his hand slightly out (and a penalty was awarded via a VAR look by referee Chris Beath). For me, It was never a handball.

“But (as per latest edicts) if you say unnatural position, hand away from the body, making himself bigger, then arguably you then have a handball. But, really it’s not.”


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5 min read
Published 12 January 2020 12:12pm
By Dave Lewis


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