The sights, the smells, the songs and the craic of football. Oh, and VAR

There are many reasons why, as kids, we fell in love with the absolute mess we know as football. The sights, the smells, the songs, the crowd, the craic, the personalities, the needle, the routine, the incredible skill, the dazzling ineptitude, the drama, the suspense, the speed, the sense of occasion, the sense of belonging, the community, the explosions of emotion. Football Daily has not yet conferred with every single fan that ever was – the project is ongoing, or would be were anyone prepared to engage it in conversation – but so far its exclusive research reveals that no one was captivated by the minutiae of the game’s officiating process.

That being the case, quite why the footballing authorities introduced VAR – aiming to increase the percentage of correct decisions from 95% to 99% – should be impossible to fathom. Should be impossible to fathom, but actually quite easy to fathom: grown adults unable to cope because their poor little favourite team didn’t win, “taking to Twitter” citing bias, corruption and vendetta; embittered players and managers blaming officials to misdirect from their own failings. So the flow of the game was sacrificed and with it the unbridled, incomparable ecstasy that follows the scoring of a goal, the greatest feeling known to humanity.

A football match is never lost because of a refereeing decision. Officials make errors, so it is the job of players and managers – who make them too – to render them irrelevant. This point was noted by Erik ten Hag after Manchester United were denied what looked a clear penalty when drawing with Crystal Palace. “You have to accept the decisions from VAR, from the referees,” he said, baldly. “I look in the mirror, I look to my team, I look to my own