I started watching Aston Villa in the early nineties – VAR re-refereeing is ruining football

Aston Villa supporters were left frustrated by the four-minute VAR check that ruled out Tammy Abraham’s goal against Brentford.

Villa were 1-0 down early in the second half of their Premier League game against the Bees when Abraham followed in to score after Caoimhin Kelleher parried a shot from Jadon Sancho.

A quick glance at a replay to make sure he was onside – how joyous our game is in 2026 – and Villa were level against ten men with most of the second period left to play.

But there was more. The video assistant referee for Sunday’s game was Paul Tierney, who saw fit to intervene. Four minutes after the ball hit the net, Villa’s equaliser was disallowed.

Tim Robinson, the match referee on the field, did not see a replay before announcing that the ball had been “factually out of play” when Leon Bailey was on the ground by the touchline not far from Villa’s corner flag.

Corruption, conspiracy or incompetence?

We’ve all discussed the details. Was Bailey’s action really in the same phase of play as the goal? Was the ball really out of play? None of that actually matters to me, if I’m being honest.

I’m willing to accept that the ball was out of play; it sure looked it. I’d dispute the 20 seconds subject to review constituted a single phase of play but I know more about the Laws of the Game than I do VAR protocols. Villa did break pretty quickly. Fine.

Let’s get my basic starting point out in the open here because it’s more pertinent than the specifics of this particular incident: I am a Villa supporter and I do feel aggrieved on that basis, but I opposed VAR before its introduction, I oppose it now, and I’d prefer it to be used absolutely minimally if we must suffer it at all.

This sort of thing is why, and yes, I’d be saying the same thing the other way round.

I don’t believe for a minute that there’s a targeted conspiracy against Villa, nor do I think officiating in England or the use of VAR is fundamentally corrupt. One could make a case that the very fact of VAR’s presence and business structure is unfortunate but that’s for another day.

Even the matter of competence is overblown, in my opinion. Some referees are better than others but my opposition to VAR was and is a philosophical one.

Re-refereeing and the spirit of VAR

The very short version is that I don’t think VAR should have the power to go back so far. The longer version is that VAR is being used to re-referee football in ways it was never publicly intended to, and for whatever reason – I think it’s more about the process being developed and manned by busy weirdo nerds than corruption – there is a bizarre obsession with finding reasons to disallow goals.

Sorry if this offends: I’ve been watching football for nearly 40 years because I like goals.

There are lots of misconceptions around VAR, perhaps chiefly the assumption that ‘clear and obvious’ is always the threshold to overturn a decision. It’s not quite that simple. However, the broad purpose of VAR was supposed to be about avoiding travesties of footballing justice.

That’s not how it’s being used. VAR is about millimetres. It’s about actively looking for technicalities at the expense of the moments that make the game matter. It’s easy to view all of this through a partisan club lens but this is imposed fusspottery in a sport whose appeal is so powerful because of goals, because of emotion, because of rhythm and flow.

I’m generally optimistic about football but also fiercely protective of the game as I believe it should be. This is not it.

Villa count the cost but football is the victim

The decision made in Villa’s defeat against Brentford was wrong in its own right. A four-minute check to cancel out a goal on a technicality is absurd and the reason it took as long as it did is that the ball being “factually” out simply isn’t true.

It was probably out. I think it was out. I’m certain of it, in fact. But I can’t prove it.

Crucially, the assistant referee wasn’t certain of it and play continued. That should mean something. Tierney had no business getting involved because the ball wasn’t proved to be definitively out. I’m not aware that it has been proved even now.

But this isn’t about Villa. Villa will benefit from VAR decisions that I disagree with too (they will, eventually, I promise) and they’ll go on to win, lose and draw matches this season in all manner of ways. This was only one of them and it happened in a match in which the greatest failings were Villa’s own. Let’s be clear about that.

The problem is the bigger picture. This isn’t what I want football to be. I don’t want goals ruled out for something that happened at the other end of the pitch a good while earlier. I don’t want on-field decisions to be overturned without factual evidence, or for reviews to take many minutes.

Maybe you do. I don’t claim to own the spirit and meaning of football despite having strong views on them. Watch and enjoy football however you want.

I watch a lot of football. I have for my entire life and I do it for a living. I will continue to watch it. Enjoying it, I’m sorry to say, is becoming a different story at the top level.

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