As VAR as the eye can see

Hey, remember in the old days when the catastrophists were warning that VAR would be the Y2K of football, not just ruining the game as a spectacle but worse — far, far worse — doing away with all those ‘talking points’ so beloved of pundits, whether in a studio or on a bar stool? Now we know different.

Yesterday morning, Virgin Media Sports flagged up a big week of sport on the channel by bringing Niall Quinn, Kevin Kilbane, AP McCoy, and Matt Williams to a Dublin hotel for a chinwag with the media. And while, admittedly, there was a bit of talk about Cheltenham and the Six Nations and other such minor considerations, the Video Assistant Referee was always going to be up for review after the dramatic week that was in the Champions League.