While politics is increasingly proving exceptional to the rule, there’s usually nothing like a public embarrassment to quickly change opinion and policy.
“There are situations when [VAR] isn’t clear,” explained UEFA president Aleksander Ceferin less than three months ago as he explained why his holy grail of the Champions League would not be implementing the technology this season.
“At the World Cup I believe it went well but we’ll see how it works. I don’t know if it’ll need some changes in the future.”
But if the plan – using the same logic as Premier League bosses – was to let other competitions iron out the kinks, the penalty decision in Manchester City’s victory over Shakhtar appears to have proved a farce too far for UEFA’s pride and joy.
Once the oddballs had lost their voices over Raheem Sterling and the idea of players doing the job of referees as well as their own was highlighted as extremely silly not to say impractical, the solution was obvious.
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“I said a long time ago the refs must be helped,” said Pep Guardiola when asked about the penalty that should never have been.
“They want to make a good performance, they don’t want to make mistakes but today the game is quick and fast and the players are more skilled.
“They must be helped because it takes ten seconds for someone to say it is no penalty.”
Remarkably, it seems UEFA have taken stock as Ceferin has now indicated that VAR could be introduced for the knockout rounds of the Champions League this season. And despite the latest fuss revolving around a decision that benefited City, there will be cheers at the Etihad Campus if the technology is brought in quicker than expected – especially given events over the last year.
Guardiola’s side were well beaten by Liverpool in their quarter-final, but the officials were also responsible for the 5-1 victory through their decisions in both legs – not least the Leroy Sane disallowed goal.
In the Premier League, a Sky study this week suggested that Willy Boly’s goal should not have stood for Wolves this season and City should have had another penalty at Anfield.
It’s not to say that the Blues would have won any of these games with the correct decisions but they would rather be halted by the skill of opposition teams than the ineptitude of neutral officials.
City stand as much chance of a VAR decision going against them as for them but at least the use of technology will reduce the margin of error for referees, and doing that hands more power and influence to the teams and their managers.
Providing UEFA follow through on their U-turn, Guardiola will have one less thing to worry about in preparing for another run through the gauntlet of the knockout stages.
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