Do any VAR fans know why refs go to the sideline in some situations but not others? Why was he forced to second guess his penalty decision with the whole world watching but a blatant foul leading to a goal never got a second glance?
There are problems with VAR in all leagues but monitor use in the PL is a good example of how they in particular have botched its introduction, despite having the advantage of seeing what hadn't worked in other leagues.
When they first introduced VAR the PL decided they didn't want to use the monitors as they thought they would waste too much time. Other leagues had tried the same approach before eventually switching when it turned out that using the monitors worked better but for some reason the PL thought it would be different for them. So even though the monitors were in place at all the grounds, even though IFAB protocol was to use them when required and even though other leagues were using them, the PL didn't.
This was coupled with an unusual (i.e. stupid) "light touch" policy on subjective calls generally. For example not one penalty was awarded by VAR in the first 90 games of last season, as opposed to the Bundesliga, in which 12 penalties were awarded in the first 72 games. So the PL would have had you believe that in 90 games their referees didn't get a single penalty call wrong.
This all being very stupid, they were told they had to get in line with everyone else's use of VAR and both use the monitors and actually intervene in some penalty decisions. But they were still doing so extremely reluctantly, only using them as a confirmatory process for a few red cards, so the monitors were still in fact completely pointless.
Then this season FIFA took over the VAR project globally, so the PL had to agree to get in line with official protocol, which in theory meant that if the VAR thought a subjective call was wrong then the ref would take a look at it on the monitor, as in other leagues.
But of course the bar for what VAR are told to consider "wrong" is still erratic as hell in the PL, more so than in other leagues. Stats back this up too. In the Bundesliga the VAR intervenes 0.23 times per games, holding steady at around that rate throughout the season. But in the PL we saw VAR interventions switch from 0.5 per game up to December 26th to 0.11 per game up until the start of February. Thus making this the second season in a row in which things that were penalties in one half of the season weren't in the other half.
All of which means that because the PL keep arbitrarily raising and lowering the bar for what counts as a mistake, the bar for what should and shouldn't go to the monitor also jumps up and down at different points of the season. And that inevitably leads to muddled decisions in games, because how the hell are the refs and VAR supposed to keep track of what types of fouls are or aren't "wrong enough" when it changes every few months?
It also therefore depends hugely on what the ref initially saw. Imagine a scenario where a striker is running into the box, the defender makes contact, the striker goes down. If the ref says "there was no contact" then that could be considered a clear error because the ref is factually wrong, so he could be referred to the monitor. Whereas if he says "there was slight contact but not enough to be a penalty" then that might not be considered a clear enough error, so it wouldn't get referred to the monitor. The exact same incident with two different outcomes based on what the ref happens to think happened, not what actually happened. And unlike in rugby, we don't get to hear what the ref thinks happened either.
