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Truth will be available in the Champions League next week — unless you’ve bought a ticket.
Although VAR will be in operation, replays will not be seen. Well, not by you, the paying customer inside the stadium. At home, they will know exactly what is going on.
It’s just you, the ones who have paid money for tickets, and maybe flights and hotels, too, who will be in the dark. You can’t handle the truth, apparently. Instead, a graphic — a cartoon, basically — will tell you what is going on.
Match-going fans in the Champions League will not be able to see VAR replays next week
That’s how much football trusts and values its most loyal consumers. Lucky it’s not glove puppets, really.
‘Security implications’ are behind UEFA’s decision. They do not believe supporters can see a replay of a controversial incident without rioting.
What year do they think this is? We have moved on from the days when fans had to wait for a Pathe newsreel or late-night highlights to find out what happened in the match. The invention of mobile phones gave fans in the ground a direct line to a friend in front of the television.
Social media has cut out even that middleman. Now, the verdict is instantaneous. Fans go on Twitter and see a clip, or update a live feed, or they’re streaming the match as well as watching it. What secrets do UEFA think they are protecting?
Everyone now knows when the referee’s stuffed up. In many ways that’s the saving grace — try as they might, the authorities cannot keep you uninformed for long. It’s the principle that is at stake here, more than the reality.
At West Ham on Monday night, linesman Simon Beck missed an offside against James Milner that led to Liverpool’s first goal. Replays made that obvious immediately and when, 10 minutes later, Beck flagged against Liverpool, huge ironic cheers went around the arena. They knew. They all knew. They didn’t need a replay to spread the word.
Anyway, had VAR been in place, and the fans seen the same footage as the video official, what would have been the problem? The goal would have been disallowed, no doubt of that, and, what, a riot would then have occurred? Really? Of course not.
The West Ham fans would have seen justice done so would have been perfectly happy, if a little scornful of Beck — which they were anyway — and the Liverpool end would have known exactly why their goal was ruled out. Not even the most one-eyed Red could have disputed it.
Sadio Mane’s goal would have been ruled out for offside and it would not have been disputed
So what’s the problem, where’s the riot? The only way there could be dissatisfaction caused by viewing VAR would be in very marginal cases — and it could be argued that the most marginal calls shouldn’t be judged this way in the first place. If it’s marginal, surely, the on-field decision holds sway, as happens in cricket.
But the insults to the intelligence do not end there. With seconds to go, the fourth official signalled three minutes of injury time. Yet when it got to 90 minutes, the clock displayed on the giant scoreboard stopped.
This isn’t a London Stadium issue, by the way. This happens at every ground in the country. So volatile and untrustworthy are football supporters that they are not even allowed to know how long there is to go; as if timepieces have not been with us since the 16th century; as if every smartphone does not have a stopwatch function; as if we do not all possess an innate sense of time, certainly when measuring a handful of minutes.
Is there another sport where those attending the match are treated with such contempt?
Cricket lovers know how many overs remain, even in a Test match. The clock counts down in basketball and the NFL. Rugby supporters know when 80 minutes are up.
Yet the conclusion of the match remains a mystery in football. In case, what? In case fans start whistling? They are going to do that anyway.
The moment their team is under pressure they are going to remind the referee it’s time to go home; unless their team is already losing, of course, when they favour a version of next goal wins it.
Fans are like that. They’re biased. But they’re not idiots. There’s a difference, which is what UEFA will never understand.
Joe Day and wife Lizzie welcomed two baby girls Sophie Grace and Emilia Lillie into the world
Keeper’s double trouble
Louis CK used to do a bit about putting his young daughters in the car.
About shutting the door on the bedlam and bickering, walking around to the driver’s side and taking a long, deep breath before getting in.
‘You know what that is?’ he would say, of those fleeting seconds of separation. ‘That’s your time.’
And, speaking as the father of twins and a sibling who was just 14 months older, he’s right. So Joe Day, whose wife gave birth to Sophia and Emelia while he turned out for Newport at home to Middlesbrough on Tuesday, might not appreciate it yet, but playing in goal in an FA Cup replay against a club 56 places above his in the league, may be the last minute of real peace he gets in 20 years.
Klopp’s strop with Pellegrini was justified
Jurgen Klopp did not have much of a point about the referee on Monday, but he had every right to be snarky with West Ham manager Manuel Pellegrini.
With West Ham still to play at the Etihad Stadium on February 27, it was poor form for Pellegrini to say he wanted Manchester City to win the league.
If Klopp was pondering whether West Ham would be as committed to taking points from Pellegrini’s former club, he was within his rights.
Jurgen Klopp took exception to Manuel Pellegrini wanting Manchester City to win the title
MPs share blame for rise of racism
Mims Davies, the Minister for Sport, is demanding a summit with football’s leaders to discuss fears of growing racism and other prejudices in the game. The parameters appear to be quite wide-ranging and will involve conversations with Kick It Out and Stonewall, players, fan groups and coaches, as well as football executives.
Perhaps Davies might also like to consider whether British society has grown less tolerant since a major political campaign was framed around the falsehood of Turkey joining the European Union, making Britain’s borders vulnerable to an invasion of Turkish immigrants.
Vote Leave — the campaign Davies supported — directly stigmatised those who were perceived as other to us. They are all trying to disown the specious Turkey scare now — ‘I didn’t talk about Turkey, mate,’ Boris Johnson told a reporter last month, which is, again, a lie — but it was there. Dominic Cummings, who conducted the successful Leave campaign, admits it.
He made a direct link between uncontrolled immigration via the EU, the toll it would take on the NHS, and the money we could spend on the NHS if we got out. ‘If Boris, (Michael) Gove and Gisela (Stuart) had not supported us and picked up the baseball bat marked “Turkey/NHS/£350 million” with five weeks to go, then 650,000 votes might have been lost,’ Cummings explained in The Spectator.
And this is the campaign Davies backed. A campaign based on a false scare that Turkey would join the EU — there was no prospect of progress in that area, and has not been for years — with figures plucked out of thin air, that linked a failing NHS with mass immigration.
So racism is on the rise in a working-class sport in a country which recently held a very divisive referendum — for which Davies also voted — with the topic of outsiders and outside rule at its core.
Maybe football should be calling for a summit with ministers, rather than the other way round. When is it their turn to take the responsibility that comes with control?
Sala tragedy must not be soap opera
Even in the era of the 24-hour news cycle, it seems rather ghoulish to be provided with constant updates on the whereabouts and status of the wreckage of Emiliano Sala’s doomed light aircraft.
We hear of a plane 63 metres down on the seabed, and then a body in the plane, and then the body on the recovery boat and a private ambulance; is it Sala, or pilot David Ibbotson? Do we need the details? We’re adults, we know what happened.
The search and its tragic conclusion should be a family matter, not part of the rolling news agenda.
And how sadly predictable, too, that this would ultimately descend into a squabble over the readies between the various parties. Nantes have put in their bill for the first part of the payment, because they owe Bordeaux a sell-on fee, plus a queue of agents their cut.
Cardiff insist they will pay no fees — the first instalment is usually due seven days after any deal is completed — until the investigation into the crash is over.
Neil Warnock’s reaction to the tragedy was moving but Cardiff should not delay payment
Yet what investigation? The one that will inevitably confirm Sala’s passing, the investigation into what caused the crash, or a longer legal case that attempts to establish liability?
This could take years to pick through, and Cardiff know it.
The reaction of club officials such as Neil Warnock has been moving and sincere, but it would be appalling if those above him used the process as a way of delaying financial liabilities.
As crass as Nantes’ demands may appear, there was a transfer and it had taken place when Sala went missing. He may never have played for Cardiff but he was undoubtedly their player at that point, meaning there are obligations.
It may not be the right time to discuss them, with the search ongoing, but they exist and if Cardiff let this descend into a hardball negotiation over his £15m fee, neither side will emerge well.
Rodriguez-Bong row must stop
The chants aimed at Brighton defender Gaetan Bong by West Brom fans on Wednesday night were highly distasteful.
Not overtly racist — but as they came in the context of an accusation of racism Bong made against West Brom player Jay Rodriguez, which could not be substantiated, they contained a nasty undertone.
Then again, so did the chants of ‘racist’ the Brighton fans aimed at Rodriguez. Chris Hughton, Brighton’s manager, suggested the treatment of Bong might merit further investigation by the Football Association.
Gaetan Bong (right) helped Brighton beat West Brom but was targeted by distasteful chanting
If so — what of Rodriguez? He has always protested his innocence, and no conclusive proof was found to substantiate Bong’s accusations.
Are we going to suggest that being publicly branded a racist without substantiation is painless? If the FA investigates Bong’s tormentors without conceding Rodriguez was wronged, too, that would certainly be the implication.
The accusation was investigated at the time, and a conclusion made. As unsatisfactory as that may have been, both players should be allowed to get on with their careers without being constantly dragged back to the same place.
Despite frightening the horses with talk of playing Jack Nowell at flanker, England coach Eddie Jones is not backing down. ‘I’d love to get Billy Vunipola fit enough to play 12,’ he told a small gathering of — frankly, appalled — rugby writers last weekend.
Looking at the bemused faces, Jones ploughed on. ‘The game’s changing, guys,’ he insisted.
Maybe it’s not changing as quickly as Jones would like, but he’s not wrong. As athletic levels in rugby continue to improve, variation of roles is the future.
Garcia the brat shames golf
When Sergio Garcia’s Masters victory in 2017 was hailed as a populist triumph, there were those who begged to differ. They cited the many times Garcia behaved like a brat and refuted claims he was a people’s champion.
Rows with rules officials, spitting in the cup, the fried chicken crack about Tiger Woods — it was quite a case for the prosecution. Ultimately, however, nothing could trump Garcia’s joy on at last winning a major, or the sheer pleasure of seeing a great player fulfil his dream and destiny.
This was before Garcia showed such dismal contempt for the game, and his fellow professionals, by damaging several greens during the Saudi International tournament.
It will be harder to indulge him now, and the European Tour should be ashamed that their punishment did not extend beyond simple disqualification. Garcia should have surrendered his Tour card for a month, at least.
Sergio Garcia showed dismal contempt for the game with his behaviour in Saudi Arabia
There is a suggestion Anthony Joshua could be frozen out of the action, if Tyson Fury and Deontay Wilder agree a rematch package of up to three fights. Yet who wants to see that? Fury versus Wilder was good, but it was hardly Ali-Frazier.
The final-round resurrection was a show-stopper, but we’ve seen that now. What remains is a fight between a big puncher and a great technician — a decent match, but not one that demands endless repetition, particularly if it becomes a ploy to avoid the man with the belts.
That is the fight the public really wants to see: the winner versus Joshua.
Anthony Joshua may have to bide his time to fight Tyson Fury or Deontay Wilder
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