Steve Burns

Former Motorcycle Grand Prix journo, now enjoying being a fan. Sometime football coach and massive Monty Python fanatic.

[Dennis Noyes @DennisNoyes]

Lots of gaffers from F1 wandering over lately, and we are expected to rejoice. Would F1 fans be excited if some veteran MotoGP team bosses backdoored over to their turf? We will never be F1 and F1 will never be MotoGP. Let´s keep the cameras pointed at the track.

[Archie Rhind-Tutt @archiert1]

Villa under Unai Emery have spent nearly twice as much as Freiburg have in their entire history.

[Adam Summerton @adamsummerton]

I really hope there can be a sensible discussion about whether football moves away from VAR

It’s been a number of years now, these aren’t teething troubles anymore, this is an addition to the game that currently takes more away than it gives, with no prospect of that changing.

Yes, there’ll be more things missed, but things like spontaneity & flow contribute hugely to what makes football so great - the trade off, arguably, hasn’t been worth it.

We still get human error, and always will - it just takes a lot longer with VAR

[Wayne Barton @WayneSBarton]

VAR, destroying the beautiful game north and south of the border ♥️♥️♥️♥️♥️♥️

[Jack Pitt-Brooke @JackPittBrooke]

It’s not just an English problem. It’s not PGMOL, it’s not “the people using it”. It’s the tech. It’s always been the tech. Full GLOBAL abolition now.

[Mob @UTDRhody]

🚨 Sir Alex Ferguson on what still decides football in 2026:

🗣️ Ferguson: “People spend more time than ever talking about systems, structures, build-up shapes, inverted full-backs, and all of these modern ideas. And yes, the game has changed, no doubt about that. But football has never stopped being simple at its core.
At the highest level, when pressure is at its peak, tactics don’t score goals and they don’t clear danger in your box. Players do. The ones with courage, the ones who don’t hide, the ones who take responsibility when the game is tight and everything feels heavy.

At Manchester United, we always understood that. You don’t build great teams by overcomplicating things—you build them by creating winners. Players who hate losing more than they enjoy winning. That’s what carries you through difficult moments in a season.

I’ve seen matches where we were not the better tactical side, but we won because the mentality was stronger. We refused to accept defeat. Someone always stepped up, whether it was a tackle, a run, a goal, or just leadership in the dressing room.

Modern football will keep evolving, but one thing will never change. When everything is analysed, studied, and planned… it still comes down to individuals stepping up when it matters most. That’s what separates good teams from champions.”

[Mat Oxley @matoxley]

@DennisNoyes @CW1Miles @bobpockrass @IUMediaSchool @kaitlynvincie Prestige is also lost due to grim dilution. You can be the one journalist on site telling the story from a race, but there’s 100s of Facebook etc pages telling the story from their bedrooms. How does the fan know which is which?

[Sid Lowe @sidlowe]

This. So much this.

[Henry Winter @henrywinter]

Premier League fans deliver damning verdict on VAR. 75% of 7,946 fans polled by the Football Supporters’ Association “didn’t support the use of VAR”. Too long, too forensic, too much of a joy killer, fans say. Findings shared with Premier League and PGMO.

92% of fans surveyed “agreed” that “VAR has removed the spontaneous joy of goal celebrations” (82% of them “strongly agreed”).

85% of match-going fans “strongly disagreed” with the notion that “VAR makes watching football more enjoyable”. And 83% of those watching on TV.

85% of match-going fans “strongly disagreed” that “VAR decisions are generally resolved in a reasonable amount of time”. Echoed by 83% of those watching on TV.

Only 18% agreed that “VAR has improved the overall accuracy of refereeing decisions”.

72% are “concerned about the expansion of VAR beyond its current remit”.

79% “strongly disagreed” with the suggestion “that the match-going experience is better with VAR”.

67% “strongly agreed” that they preferred “watching games that are played without VAR to games with VAR”.

84% “strongly support” goal-line technology.

34% “strongly opposed” to the idea of a challenge system (two per game per team).

“These findings back up the FSA's previous survey in 2021, where fans expressed misgivings about the introduction of VAR,” says Thomas Concannon, @WeAreTheFSAPremier League network manager.
“The vast majority are reporting the same concerns five years on - the loss of spontaneity when celebrating goals, and an overall worsening of the match-going experience. We have shared the survey results with the Premier League and PGMO, and look forward to discussing its findings with them.” Fans surveyed of all PL clubs and all ages (Under-18 to 65+).

[Glenn Freeman @glennfreeman39]

They found some 130R footage (Russell’s car) for the ghost car lap.

Downshifting in the corner because you’ve run out of revs… yay.

Yes 130R isn’t what it was pre-2003 anyway, but it deserves better than this.

So do the drivers. So do the fans.

[80s&90sFootball ⚽ @80s90sfootball]

Remembering Johan Cruyff, who sadly passed away ten years ago today

Sensational player who revolutionised football ❤️🙏

[BBC Sport @BBCSport]

"It hasn't worked as they told us it was going to work."

@alanshearer isn't happy with how VAR is being used.

@WayneRooney says he would get rid.

Thoughts? 💭

[Kieran Maguire @KieranMaguire]

It shows the farce that is the governance of football these days such that if Wrexham v Chelsea had taken place in the 4th round and not the 5th Wrexham would have 11 men on the pitch and the score would be 3-3. The FA are an embarrassing shambles of an organisation.

[Fans against VAR @FansAgainstVAR_]

VAR is the singular worst thing to happen to the sport of football in its history.

[Jan Aage Fjørtoft 🇳🇴 @JanAageFjortoft]

I’m a supporter of any tool that makes our game fairer.

But VAR was introduced with two simple, powerful principles: “clear and obvious.” It was never meant to mean searching for minutes on end to find a reason to disallow a goal. It was never meant to freeze the game to pick out a single frame and rule someone offside by an inch.

We were told VAR would strengthen referees. Instead, it has made them more hesitant and less authoritative.

This weekend, VAR was given an even wider mandate. At the very same meeting, new rules were introduced to reduce time-wasting, yet the biggest source of delay in modern football is VAR itself.

I still believe in using technology to make football fairer. But in its current form, VAR risks damaging the flow of the game and the experience of the fans. And without the fans, there is no game.

[Sean Walsh @SeanDZWalsh]

People think VAR can be fixed.

There’s no point. You’ve got two sets of complete morons looking at this deciding it should be a red card. It’s idiotic. The people in charge of our game are just incredibly thick.

You can’t fix that. VAR has to be abolished completely.

[Amos Murphy @AmosMurphy_]

People will no doubt use this Aston Villa vs Newcastle game as a gotcha for those who say VAR should be scrapped.

But all it's highlighted is that the quality of officiating is in the gutter.

Doesn't matter if they're on the pitch, or behind a TV screen.

[The Athletic | Football @TheAthleticFC]

Roberto Rosetti, UEFA’s head of refereeing, believes VAR has become too “microscopic” and claims the reason for the technology’s introduction in the first place has been forgotten.

“About the VAR intervention, I can tell you this: I believe that we forgot the reason why VAR was introduced,” the Italian said. “We forgot a little bit. Everywhere. You remember, eight years ago, I came to London. We discussed the ‘what VAR stands for’. We spoke about clear mistakes.

“Why we spoke about clear and obvious mistakes. Because technology works so well in factual decisions. In objective decisions, it is fantastic. For interpretations, subjective evaluation is more difficult. That’s why we started to speak about clear and obvious mistakes — clear evidence.

“I believe that we need to, at the end of the season, again in our meetings, to speak about this. We cannot go in this direction of microscopic VAR intervention. We love football like it is.”

More from @Dan_Sheldon_

🔗 https://t.co/nZwZMaSu2D

[Richard Williams @rwilliams1947]

One thing this brilliant FA Cup 3rd round weekend has proved is that, even with the odd mistake, football is much, much, much better without VAR.

[Steve Burns @burnss37]

@mcgillmd921 Evening