Everyone talks about VAR, which is great. It will help the referees no end. But if you've got VAR in place and VAR becomes the ref, I'm not sure that's good for the game.
One important measurement issue concerns the fat tails problem that I mentioned earlier. VAR is concerned with extreme outcomes. If the tails of the probability distributions we are using are too thin, our VAR measures are likely to be too low.
We've all had meetings with the referees. We're all clear with how VAR works, and ultimately, you want the rules to be fair.
With VAR, the refereeing errors will be reduced, and therefore, we'll all be on equal terms. It will take a lot of the responsibility from the referees on vital decisions, like penalties and goals, and they will make far fewer mistakes.
VAR exposes everything. Before we didn't have the possibility of seeing some things that we now see. The referees are people who can be wrong as well.
Football is always a very emotional game, and VAR is changing that a bit.
Clearly, I'm for the VAR.
You can call me Mr. VAR.
We want to see goals and excitement but I am sorry to say that VAR is killing every part of that. You are losing the raw emotion of the game we absolutely love.
If I sit here and say I don't agree with VAR, I'd be lying.
I have always said that I am a friend of VAR.
Obviously you have to trust the VAR to make the right decision.
VAR can remove injustices, but decisions need to be taken faster.
I think VAR is a very healthy development within the industry.
VAR is a tool we have that can make us better. But we must use it and have a clearer vision of reality.
Some things are ridiculous and just as us players and coaches need to improve, so does VAR.
The VAR was introduced to reduce controversies, and instead, they have increased - possibly because we Italians like to stoke them.