2025-26 UEFA Champions League

there was no other mistake other than the ref incorrectly calling it a free which VAR corrected.

do you not see how mad what you’re suggesting the ref do is?

think about it…

The handball happened in the penalty area so what should the ref do…”listen this isn’t actually a handball but I’ll give the penalty because the non handball happened in the area” or “listen this isn’t a handball so I won’t give a penalty even though it happened in the penalty area…I’ll just leave it as a free kick…even though the offence was in the box”

surely you can see how mad following that train of thought would be and bring the rules into disrepute

the correct protocol was followed. The correct decision was made after var review. How people complain about these things as bad var is beyond me

Spurs have had a fairly soft four games so far considering it's the CL. Slavia Prague to come at home in the next two games aswell. Can only beat what's in front of you though I suppose. Interested to see how they get on in Paris next, considering their good away record. Should be a good game.

I'm saying 2 things: the rereffing of free kicks like this has made it a worse experience for the fans and secondly, it delays the game and in this instance wasn't given back as added time at the end of the half

On the first point, it's subjective whether you think the worse experience for the fans (because of the confusion and time taken) is worth it

You seem to think the ends always justify the means. I disagree

If it took an hour to do a VAR check would you think that's reasonable? I assume not, so there's a line somewhere that you would find it unreasonable, that line is just much smaller for me than you, I don't think we'll align on that

On the second point, I got the footage

29:12 ball hits the arm, whistle blown

3mins and 35 seconds pass

32:47 ref drops the ball and game restarts

45:00 2mins is given as added time

47:10 half time blown

So my question on the 2nd one is don't you think it's an issue to have a singular VAR delay of over 3mins in a half but only 2mins added on?

2mins would have been fair at the end of the 1st half for all stoppages OTHER THAN the check

It appears as if the officials decided to ignore the time taken for the VAR check entirely - which I don't think is correct.

they don’t decide things over comms without the ref coming to look at a screen. Doesn’t work that way. Can explain it further if as you say it doesn’t make sense to you otherwise.

It's tedious dull, Don't know what's more dull International breaks or these CL snooze fests

Theres always a few good games in the CL to gloss over all the dross.

But didnt Psg lose 4 group games last season, and still went on to win it? That's not in the spirit of the EC/CL.

But theres just so many worthless games, like Prague v Arsenal. Never in doubt. epl teams too strong for likes of those teams.

no you have the correct quote…what I meant there and probably it isn’t clear in fairness is there was no other mistake than the injury time because you said that was the refs biggest mistake. I’m saying there was two mistakes meaning the injury time was a mistake and the actually handball free kick award was a mistake. The ref made two mistakes, var could correct only one.

Ok fair enough I misread it then

I think he's going to say that it's not the same in the CL, I think it's clear that it works like that in the PL but I'm guessing there's some nuance in the rules or something that means it can't be done under UEFA protocol

That post with the "can explain further" sounds like a gotcha to me....instead of just explaining in the post why they couldn't do it over comms tonight

VAR reviewing VAR

VARception

Don't know what game you were watching last night but the PSG Vs Bayern game was really good.

Tedious is the last word I would use.

good man, I wish everyone would do the same as you. It’s clear var is here to stay. 19-1 clubs in the prem support its retention.

A PL vote has nothing to do with the Champions League using VAR.

Champions League (UEFA) introduced VAR before the PL did and there's leagues that don't use VAR that supply teams to the CL

Essentially if you qualify for the CL you agree to adhere to the rules of UEFA (you actually usually indirectly agree to being bound to the rules of UEFA in advance of qualification as part of your league participation)

AFAIK there's nothing stopping UEFA from making VAR changes in the CL without a PL vote or even their participation

To put my point the other way around, had the PL vote been 19-1 in favour of scrapping VAR in 2024, it wouldn't have affected the CL and we'd still be talking about the decision from last night regardless

No, but he should have been told that it was "clear and obvious error" not "potential penalty".

VAR got him out of jail by calling him over for one free out of the 27 he awarded. Where is that line, I wonder?

The rules are as follows, for VAR

"The referee may be assisted by a video assistant referee (VAR) only in the event of a 'clear and obvious error' or 'serious missed incident' in relation to:

• goal/no goal
• penalty/no penalty
• direct red card (not second caution)
• mistaken identity when the referee cautions or sends off the wrong player of the offending team."

None of these were the actual case here, absolutely none of them. The referee awarded a free kick outside the box, not a penalty. It is not for VAR to intervene in that scenario, as it doesn't fit any of these criteria.

That's the point I'm trying to make here.

There are always wrong decisions.

In the PL thread, I mentioned that I thought Sunderland should have had a penalty when Keane handled the ball, and today I see "Sunderland 'seek clarification' from PGMOL over contentious incident in Everton draw."

I like VAR, but I'd like it better if it did its job, as laid out in the laws of the game, whether in the PL or Europe.