On video review and FVS — this sentence is…absurd:

“I think that the fact that a coach has an opportunity to make his or her decision on whether they want to challenge this play, I think makes it unique and takes some of that subjectivity out of it,”

Whatever one wants to say about switching the initiation of video review away from an independent and fairly objective video review official to the control of very interested coaches does not make it less subjective.

Worse, it forces the coaches to be strategic, or leaves crucial errors unreviewed late in the game. So, not just more subjective, but also more arbitrary. Think MLB right now, where batters have to instantly decide whether to challenge a call, knowing that could erase the opportunity for teammates to challenge pitch calls later. That matters to some hitters, but apparently not to Andy Pages.

If you hate video review, then I suppose something that limits the possibilities in terms of numbers of plays getting reviewed in any game would be a net positive. If the goal though is to try to get the important calls right, then this is just an arbitrary limit that will leave bad calls uncorrected. I mean, I share the goal of encouraging refs to get the calls right the first time, and not make calls or ignore possible fouls with the expectation that video review will get the call right. But, maybe there’s a way to get there without sending the baby down the drain with the dirty bathwater?

Of course, the tech involved, and how it’s used is the real question. There was a goal last night by Cruz Azul that appeared to be offside, but the angle wasn’t great. hard to tell if the defender on the far side was keeping him on. The attacker had been offside when the ball was passed forward, but it was redirected by a teammate, and it was possible that the defense had dropped back enough to put him onside. But the angle shown on TV was not a great one. In the EPL, or at the World Cup, there are so many cameras that it’s hard to imagine plays for which there isn’t a really good angle allowing for lines to be drawn. Less so in MLS, and possibly inconceivable in most leagues around the world.

A challenge ‘card’ system will force teams to be really careful in using it. Maybe in a game with few pivotal plays it won’t be a big deal, but in a lot of games it will limit challenges to instances where there appears to be a big mistake. Not merely a toe offside. That might be more satisfying to fans, but there will also be highlights where a call was missed but not challenged. Will that be better? Depends on what you value most.