The use of VAR to assist referees has proven controversial in football, causing lengthy delays while officials review footage before deciding on goals and fouls.
Alcantara hates modern football
Spain midfielder Thiago Alcantara admits he hates modern football and believes VAR is damaging the football. The use of VAR to assist referees has proven controversial in football, causing lengthy delays while officials review footage before deciding on goals and fouls. The Spain international, who is currently with his national team at Euro 2020, says he has always been against VAR and feels that it is an example of how football is losing its way. “Managers can communicate with us better; players can communicate more with each other,” said the 30-year-old. “You lose competitiveness, but you develop other aspects. Extra substitutions mean squads that defend, defend to the 90th minute; teams that press you, press you to the end. I have a mentality of “hate modern football”; I’m more classic in attitude. And there is VAR, which I have always opposed. It removes the essence, the adventurous.”
Football is losing its magic and fantasy
“Players make mistakes when during play; referees have to make mistakes too. Lots of fabulous moments would not exist with VAR. And when you score, even an amazing goal from the halfway line, you’re waiting. Thinking: ‘I hope there isn’t a foul in the build-up, I hope there’s no offside’.” Thiago feels that football is losing its “magic” and “fantasy” as the game becomes more physically intense and faster. “It’s taken up a different pace, rhythm: more accelerated, more physical,” Alcantara said. “The figure of the No. 10 has almost disappeared. We see less magic, less fantasy. Football players do more but faster. There is no need to dribble because you run. Players are more advanced in every sense. You lose that player who is different, who ‘breath’; the playmaker who was slower, even if he had sublime technique does not get the chance to turn.”
“Those of us who are not so fast with our legs have to be faster in our heads. It’s like anything in life: adaptation. Everything keeps moving. Football changes all the time, expressed differently.”