The VAR: the ants, the elephants, the men and the machine to spoil football

History repeats itself. It is repeated as bets are sometimes repeated to determine if a goal was legal or not or if a player was in an advanced position or not, as happens from the arrival of the VAR to Argentina. A VAR expected by manybut what ends up being opposed by almost everyone because, in the end, it resists. Because not only does it not finish doing justice as expected, but turns into a show car.

In Argentina we have a VAR which, paradoxically, is repeated in its controversies and in the constant feeling that the shot can go anywhere. A VAR that works with 24 cameras in some games, those of the most popular teams, and only eight in others in the smaller games – we must not forget that we have the enormity and the abnormality of 14 games to date! -. And, of course, 24 cameras don’t see like eight.

We also have a VAR which finds referees who choose to rely on the VAR and a VAR which relies on referees who have different criteria – something that often happens with the hands and their dissimilar interpretations -. But that’s not the biggest problem. It was thought that the VAR had arrived to calm the controversy. But the controversy does not stop.

The central problem is that we are faced with a VAR that arouses suspicion, which unfortunately is logical in a world like football where everyone is wary of everyone.

This Tuesday evening the beneficiary was Barracas Central, the team of the president of the AFA, Claudio Chiqui Tapia, who carries in his backpack in bulk controversy during his lightning and ascending path that deposited him in First. It is not the only beneficiary, of course. Difficult to explain, however, the failures that occurred during the match with Patronato. Not to mention that they are inexplicable. Beyond the explanations of the referees involved. And beyond the explanations of the chief referee.

There are those who insist on looking for the smallest detail to make history change its course. There are those who omit rudeness so that history never changes under the rule of following, following. They talk about ants and elephants. But we must talk about men. The problem is that we have a VAR that does not give the certainties it should give. Because the problem, like pigs that don’t stop gaining weight, is not the VAR or the technology, but the humans managing it.