VAR will destroy football for future generations

VAR is ruining football for Liverpool fans.

Football authorities have a serious problem with VAR that none of them seems to be considering.

I was all for the use of video referees when the concept was first wheeled out. There are so many cameras on the game already that a short pause to get the right decision would stamp out any inconsistencies that we had with decisions that can literally cost clubs millions of dollars.

But four things, in particular, have happened this season that has made me realise just how much trouble football could be in.

Firstly there was a penalty awarded against Tottenham for handball when the ball had come from behind the player in question. Then we had the Sadio Mane offside in the Merseyside derby when there was literally no way of confirming which part of his body had strayed.

Thirdly we had the issue with Patrick Bamford. The Leeds striker pointed where he wanted the ball, ran on to a beautiful pass, and then slipped the ball past the goalkeeper only for the goal to be ruled out because the arm he used to demand the pass with was ruled to be offside.

As a junior football coach, this one annoyed the most because Bamford did exactly what he would have been told to do since he was a kid. Hold your run slightly, demand the ball and point exactly where you want it played.

Then we had my final problem. After getting up at all hours of the night to watch every Liverpool match so far this season and then sitting through another VAR shambles of our match against Brighton, my 13-year-old son told me that he didn’t want to get up early to watch the midweek Champions League match against Ajax.

This is a kid who has become obsessed with football in recent years but as the heart and soul is slowly sucked out of it, this passion is slipping and it’s this that the football authorities need to be aware of.

I’m old. I will watch the game no matter what state it slips into. But if the current trend continues and the kids slowly decide that the game is not worth watching then it simply has no future.