Something that’s been mildly irritating us for a while now turned into a fully-fledged gear-grinding p*ss-boiler at the weekend, so now unfortunately you all have to suffer as we attempt to achieve some sort of catharsis by writing it down. Without wishing to go entirely too far down the Old Man Yells At Cloud route it is definitely something that didn’t used to happen anywhere near as often as it did. And the thing is this: missing the restart after a goal because the TV director is still showing replays.
Our suspicion here is that this is yet another symptom of The Dreaded VAR, with the added kick in the testes of the fact that VAR itself actually makes it all the more imperative that we get to see kick-off after a goal has been scored. VAR has given television more time after even the most uncontroversial goal is scored. More time to luxuriate in multiple replays and for Peter Drury’s soliloquys to grow ever longer and more convoluted.
But that time is not infinite. And the very existence of VAR actually makes showing the kick-off after a goal more important than ever before; in all the excitement and confusion the sight of the conceding team restarting proceedings from the centre-circle can often be the first confirmation that the goal has definitely been given. There really is no excuse to miss what is a fundamental if often mundane element of a live football match.
There is almost no justification in our view for ever prioritising a(nother) replay over that symbol.
