LONDON —
England’s Premier League has long prided itself on the kind of soccer it
sells to the world, a compelling product that it bills as a unique
brand of high-octane, fast-and-furious soccer. So it is perhaps little
surprise that the league’s introduction this season of video assistant
refereeing — the game-pausing, controversy-inducing, fan-aggravating
replay system in growing use worldwide — has been an uncommonly bad fit
here, a case of sound and fury meeting a handbrake.
The new system has dominated coverage of the first four months of the season, where hardly a week has gone by without a major V.A.R.-induced controversy. A missed penalty at Bournemouth. A disallowed goal at Manchester United. A toe, or an armpit, inches offside at one stadium, a handball overlooked at another.
Not
even the biggest matches have been immune. Long before the final
whistle blew in Liverpool’s 3-1 victory over Manchester City on Nov. 10,
in one glaring example, the match already had been overshadowed by yet
more questions about officiating, with City Manager Pep Guardiola
quickly transformed into an internet meme over his televised outrage at
two calls in particular.
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