Prem must stop turning every goal into forensic investigation.. AI might be death of us but I’ll take it if it fixes VAR

LAST Sunday, the Premier League gave us another VAR controversy. Another goal that should not have stood. Another explanation afterwards. Another reminder that football has somehow made getting the right decision more complicated by giving referees more information. Then came the League Cup, where VAR was absent. VAR had another disaster during the Manchester Derby last weekend Credit: Sky Sports AI might be the death of us but it could go a long way to fixing VAR Credit: Getty Suddenly football looked quite capable of surviving without somebody in a room full of screens studying every camera angle before deciding what everyone else had already seen. I saw Erling Haaland the following day — less than 24 hours after he had scored the controversial winner. He was, unsurprisingly, extremely pleased with the result. I doubt many Manchester United supporters were. Sign up for the Man United newsletter Thank you! It’s left me pondering whether A.I. might be the answer? And yet I can’t help thinking it might be simpler to move good, old-fashioned human error from Stockley Park back to the pitch. The extraordinary thing about the Manchester derby was not simply that VAR got it wrong. Referees get things wrong. That’s football. The extraordinary thing was that the referee made a decision, VAR reviewed it, had every possible angle available, watched it again and still came to the wrong conclusion. Pro Ref subsequently acknowledged the goal should not have stood, with Howard Webb describing the problem as “tunnel vision”. The VAR team concentrated on whether Haaland was offside and failed properly to consider other players in an offside position. I was in the room when Premier League clubs voted to retain VAR in 2024. I voted to retain it. Most read in Sport BEST ONLINE CASINOS – TOP SITES IN THE UK But that was not a vote of confidence. It was certainly not 20 clubs saying: “This is working brilliantly, please carry on”. Frustrations ran deep. But there was also a recognition that simply throwing away the technology would create another set of problems. So, we voted to keep it, with significant improvements promised. And, to be fair, some improvements have happened. Semi-automated offside has made the process quicker and there is more communication around decisions and work on training, consistency and transparency. But none of that addresses the fundamental problem. The technology can tell you if a player is offside but it cannot stop the operator looking at the wrong thing. That is what happened in the Manchester derby. What we wanted in that Premier League meeting was not faster VAR. We wanted better VAR. One wrong decision is infuriating for the biggest clubs but for a smaller club, it can be transformational. Every point matters. It can mean a different position in the table and perhaps survival rather than relegation. If a referee makes a mistake at full speed, you can at least understand it as part of the human nature of football. It is much harder to swallow when somebody has had time to watch it again, slow it down, examine it and — and still gets it wrong. Which brings me to another question: Who is actually being hurt by VAR? Top football travel deals The dangers of using AI Chatbots Artificial intelligence (AI) chatbots have become increasingly prevalent in our daily lives, assisting with everything from customer service to personal tasks. However, concerns about safety and privacy have arisen due to the extensive data these chatbots collect and process. Users may not always be aware of the information they are sharing, which can include sensitive personal details. One of the primary concerns is that conversations with AI chatbots are often stored and analysed to improve the service. This data can potentially be accessed by third parties, raising fears about unauthorised use and breaches of privacy. Additionally, the data might be used to create highly personalised profiles of users, which can then be exploited for targeted advertising or other purposes. Experts suggest several measures to mitigate these risks, such as being cautious about the information shared with chatbots and understanding the privacy policies of the services used. It is also recommended to regularly review and manage privacy settings and to be aware of the potential for data breaches. As AI technology continues to evolve, ongoing vigilance and updated regulations will be essential to ensure the safety and privacy of users. At a shareholders’ meeting, I asked whether the league could provide a cumulative table of the negative VAR interventions affecting each club. The answer was no. The League did not want to produce it because it could be construed as a league table and, if released to the media, potentially used to recreate the actual table. I don’t really understand that. I wasn’t asking for a new league table. Just a simple question: Who is actually being helped by VAR and who is being hurt by it? Why shouldn’t clubs be able to see if mistakes are falling evenly across the league? I am not suggesting there is a conspiracy against smaller clubs nor anyone deliberately favours big ones. But if the league is confident VAR errors are simply random human mistakes, surely transparency can only help demonstrate that. Transparency should not be confused with conspiracy. The problem with VAR is we have not removed human error from football. We have moved it from the pitch to a room full of screens. Perhaps the answer is not more VAR — perhaps it is less. Leave more decisions to referees on the pitch. Intervene when there is an obvious error but stop turning every goal and tackle into a forensic investigation. And then there is A.I, which we are told will be the death of us all.Frankly, if it can sort out VAR first, I’ll take my chances. At least there would be no VAR official having a bad day. Though A.I will not solve everything. If the laws are subjective, artificial intelligence will not suddenly make them mathematical. Football is a human game. Perhaps we should stop trying to make it something else. The League Cup gives us a great comparison. Decisions are made, mistakes happen, supporters celebrate, supporters complain, and everyone goes home. Nobody pretends it is perfect. But perhaps perfection is the wrong target. Comment now