The Master

With it being a Manchester derby again, it’s likely the final will kick off at 3pm. Pray for the SFA, with them having already confirmed the Scottish Cup Final for the same time.

Pass back.

It’s the first “Old Firm Final” since 2002. And if it was about keeping Premier Sports happy (not Viaplay anymore), and you believe there is corruption, it would be orchestrated for them to meet in the semi-finals.

Amazing.

Penalty to Rangers incoming?

That’ll be that then.

All three were penalties, but not only did VAR wave them away, they did so very quickly. I know England is generally more efficient with VAR, but I don’t see how there was sufficient time in any of the checks for a proper examination and discussion between the VAR and AVAR.

Why is this a screenshot of an image of a phone with a screenshot of a Tweet photoshopped into it?

That’s another penalty not given.

Given the penalties that have been given this season, I don’t understand why that wasn’t one.

The first 10 minutes of this game have been better than the entire 90 in yesterday’s FA Cup semi.

Ooft, brilliant goal for Sheffield Wednesday. Keeper and defence make a hash of it, but still a ridiculous finish from Windass.

The only person to bring the notion of “certainty” into this was @RandomGuy.. He had to award the free kick if he believed it to be one. What part of this is difficult to understand?

Because in the moment, the referee doesn’t know that. They can be confident that it’s a free kick. So confident that they subsequently give it. But allowing play to continue affords the opportunity to make sure, should a potentially game-changing incident unfold.

He believed it was a free kick, so that’s what he should award.

When? I never said that. I’ve been citing late flags as being fundamentally no different to what happened yesterday. You also seem to misunderstand what it means for a referee to make a decision. Those occasions where you see play stopped or a restart delayed for a VAR review aren’t a case of the referee not making a decision. In those cases, the decision was “no penalty” (or “no red card”, or whatever the incident is). Similarly, if an assistant doesn’t flag, that’s not them making no decision. Their decision is “not offside”.

No, because his on-field determination was that there was a foul on the defender. He let the play run not because of a lack of certainty, but because that’s what is now supposed to happen under the VAR protocol. Once a potential game-changing event happened, he stopped the play and awarded the free kick that, without VAR, he would have awarded straight away.

He can’t. https://www.theifab.com/laws/latest/video-assistant-referee-var-protocol/#principles

You and @RandomGuy. seem to have opposing perceptions of time. He thought the referee played on for almost a minute (it was seven seconds), and you think everything was done and dusted in "a split second". There was a full VAR check, announced in the stadium. That check will have included reviewing the incident that the referee deemed to be a foul that led to the award of the free kick. A potential game-changing event did arise, which is what led him to award the free-kick for the original foul. There is no obligation for the referee to give the penalty for VAR to intervene. He makes whatever decision he thinks is correct, and if VAR disagrees they can call him to the monitor. It's fundamentally no different to a player putting the ball in the net, then the linesman flags and the referee gives a free kick for offside. The referee doesn't need to award the goal for the offside to be checked (the only difference is there's no subsequent call to the monitor if the on-field decision is incorrect).

No, the whole reason for delaying was so VAR could review the free-kick should a game-changing event (penalty or goal) occur. At the moment the whistle went to award the free kick, it was still possible for a VAR intervention to lead to a penalty for Aberdeen. The delay was so that if a game-changing event subsequently occurred, VAR could review the award of the free-kick.

As I've said, the fact people are debating whether or not it was even a foul indicates the referee was right to delay. What do you mean "allowed VAR to check for a foul in the build up"? VAR absolutely will have checked for a foul in the build-up - the foul that the referee originally gave. As for the timing of the whistle, I'd have thought that was obvious. The referee believed it could be a penalty, and so awarded the original free-kick (in the same way it would have been awarded if a goal had been scored).

Yes it is. The VAR protocol make specific reference to assistants delaying flags and referees delaying their decisions. The very fact there was a potential penalty demonstrates precisely why the delay was correct.

Of course VAR could - that was the whole point of delaying. Seven seconds elapsed between the foul on the defender and the referee giving the free kick. What do you mean "a foul he wasn't sure about"? He believed it was a foul, otherwise he wouldn't have given it. However, he delayed the decision long enough to ensure that, if necessary depending on the subsequent play, VAR could intervene to ensure he was correct. This is exactly what happened. Because that's not how this works. The referee has to give the decision he believes is the correct one. He believed there was a foul on the defender, but (per VAR protocol) let play unfold to ensure that if he were wrong, any subsequent game-changing incidents would be allowed to stand.

Who said anything about stopping the play at the start of a move while including a delay? Those things are contradictory - either play is stopped at the start of a move, or there is a delay. It can't be both. I also never said referees referee in the "same way" as before VAR. I said they make their decisions as they would have done. No, because it happened after the incident that the referee believed was a foul on the defender. You're the one who introduces the notion of a referee being "certain" or not. As has been said repeatedly, it's exactly the same principle as assistants delaying their flags.