After I had ‘recovered’ from the attempted scam raid on my bank account the day before, I turned to the YouTube media contributions of the day and discovered some fascinating videos. Some were detailed and well illustrated diagrammatic accounts of how the England manager made such a catastrophic strategic error in the critical semi-final football match that England made against Argentina when England were defeated in the World Cup. Among several prominent critics was the former Spanish footballer Ces Fabregas, the renowned Spanish professional football manager and former central mid fielder. Known for his exceptional vision, passing range, and assist record, Fàbregas is the fastest player in Premier League history to record 100 assists. Following a glittering playing career that spanned clubs like Monaco and Como, he retired in 2023 and transitioned into coaching. He is the manager of Italian Serie A club Como. In short, his opinion is not to be disregarded lightly and he was of the view that when managers tried to hang onto a lead by adopting a purely defensive posture by pulling all of the team back, including the strikers, to resolutely defend these efforts ended in failure some 80%-90% of the time. There were also some excellent videos examining the role that VAR played in the critical moments of several matches. Nobody is arguing that FIFA ‘fixed’ matches for Argentina to win but the role of VAR was to take little incidents and to magnify their significance out of all proportion and, indirectly subverting the principals of the game. A case in point is the well known offside rule in which an attacking player should not be in a position where he is behind the last defender in a game and this be in a position to receive a pass and then to score with only the goalkeeper to beat. But in one particular incident, VAR had decided that a player’s toe had strayed over the imagined line of the last defending player and therefore the attacker was ruled offside. But in no way can it be said that the attacking player could gain an advantage by being an inch over the imaginary, computer generated line and hence the technology assumes an importance by being applied so rigidly. A non football example may help to illustrate this point. If I were to park my car so that a millimetre of the bumper were to infringe on the yellow line ‘space’, then technically an offence is committed and I would become liable to a parking fine. But there is a well known legal maxim in English law which in Latin is ‘De Minimus non curat lex’ which means that the law does not concern itself with really trivial cases. Were I to be issued with a parking fine for the infringement by a millimetre, then I could probably successfully appeal. You can appeal a yellow line parking ticket GOV.UK Appeal a Penalty Charge Notice using the de minimis legal principle—meaning the law does not concern itself with trifles. If only a tiny fraction of your vehicle (like a bumper overhang) crossed the line, you may argue the infringement was too minor to warrant a fine. Now to return to football and the utilisation of VAR , it appears that VAR is making decisions that are technically correct but where the offending incident is completely insignificant compared with the effect of applying VAR so rigidly that a goal that can determine the outcome of a closely contested match is disallowed. In short, the ‘de minimus’ principle is not being applied by referees who should be able to overrule VAR with ‘common sense’ judgements (but who would not date to overrule a VAR judgement) I am not a passionate football aficionado and I can see the point of VAR in some sports – for example in rugby, has the ball been grounded for a try or in cricket did a batsman snick a ball before being caught. But the situation differs in football where VAR is being used to decide the validity of penalties or goals and the consequences are huge compared with, say, the non-grounding of a ball for a try in Rugby Union. In short, perhaps a massive re-think of the role of technology in football is called for and these arguments may take place when the World Cup is over.
Once I had breakfasted, I went into town to collect a copy of the Saturday newspaper which is always heavy with supplements and hence tends to sell out early on. The weather was just a tad cooler today but I came back home and had a quiet morning, watching some more match analysis of the Argentina-England match ad also replying to an email of one of my closest Spanish friends. I decided to use up some bits and pieces in a kind of stir-fry for my lunch today as I was getting a little fed up of nothing but salads. In the afternoon, I indulged myself by watching most of the Fiji-Scotland rugby match which was quite entertaining and, by half time, the Fijians were ahead but the Scots got their act a bit more together in the second half of the match and then managed to overhaul the Fijians fairly comfortably. Although some English attention will be focused uopn the Bronze match play-off between France and England, the actual kick off is not until 10.00 pm so this might be a case of getting into bed and watching the match from the comfort of the bedroom. But there is another match starting at 8.00pm which might excite some and that is England vs. Argentina in the so-called Nations (Rugby) Cup (normally a northern hemisphere team vs one from the southern hemisphere.) I would imagine that even the rugby players would have watched the England vs. Argentina world cup match and I can only just wonder what effect this has one the mindset of both sets of players before the rugby game this evening. Consulting my emails, I see that the next U3A coach trip is a visit to Shrewsbury prison. I read that Shrewsbury Prison is one of the largest and most complete surviving Victorian prisons in Britain, operational until 2013 and preserved at scale and a guided tour is the most immersive way to explore this extraordinary prison. After this ‘experience’ we are going to visit the older parts of Shrewsbury itself so this will be an entertaining way to spend what would otherwise have been my 59th wedding anniversary of September 12th. I have seen the inside of a prison because I was a tutor to some Open University students in Gartree maximum security prison in Leicestershire and actually taught a truncated summer school in there as well. The prison is infamous for a daring helicopter escape in 1987. The breakout remains the only one of its type to have been carried out in the United Kingdom. On 10 December 1987 at 3.15 pm, John Kendall and Sydney Draper were sprung from Gartree’s exercise yard with the aid of a hijacked Bell 206 JetRanger helicopter.