I’m going to tell you about my first VAR experience at 37 years old

Carlos Cuéllar . 21-marzo-2019

Hi there:

First of all I’d like to say that I don’t like the whole VAR idea very much, although I’m open to technology helping in several aspects of all the different sports. With this idea I confronted, at 37 years old – and 18 as a professional-, my first VAR (Video Assistant Referee) experience.

We were playing at Maccabi Haifa‘s stadium, one of the greatest teams in Israel. Us, Bnei Yehuda, are a humble team from Tel Aviv but we have made a very competitive team that has taken us to final the play-off. Also thanks to that we will debut with VAR, because here it hasn’t been introduced yet in the play off to avoid relegation.

The truth is that during the match we weren’t conditioned by VAR. Body contact in the boxes were as always, and the beginning of the match was splendid for us as we scored first. It was at the end of the first half when I experienced the benfits of VAR: An action that the ref didn’t see but VAR corrected him from above, and after checking the situation, he gave a penalty and a red card: So this is how we got 2-0 ahead, which pretty much clinched the match.

It was an important win that let us keep on dreaming with playing in Europe next season, a challenge that motivates us a lot. Having said this, my opinion: I do like the eagle eye and the goal line technology but when it comes to VAR I would only use it for aggressions: violence isn’t sporty so it can help there. But nothing else. Mistakes are inside football and I think we should live with that, players or referees. We can all make mistakes and controversy will remain being a part of this sport in spite of VAR. As always, I’ll read your comments and I’m open to all opinions although in this case I’m very certain of what I think.

Beyond this issue, I’d like to tell you how happy I am. Apart from being with the best this season, we are on the Cup’s Semifinal. We’ll play against Maccabi Tel Aviv, that hasn’t lost a single match in all the season, but I see it as an opportunity, because if we beat them we will have plenty of the work done to qualify for Europe. I feel quite well and eager to remain playing football at least one more season.

I’m also very happy with the scores of my former teams: Osasuna are leaders of the Spanish Second Division, Norwich are leaders of Championship and Aston Villa are very near the play-off, where I’m sure they’ll be one of the toughest teams to beat. Regarding Rangers, it’s getting hard for them to win matches but I’m certain they’ll perform well against Celtic on the 31st of this month, one of the most beautiful matches of International football.

Thank you for your messages here and on Social Networks, always.