Lewis Cox & Jonny Drury discuss: Should the Championship introduce VAR?

On Friday at St Andrews, Birmingham City were bizarrely awarded a penalty with Albion 1-0 up - and replays showed it was a clear error from the referee.

A furious Carlos Corberan told the press after the game how the club had recently received refereeing reports where five major incidents had gone against them.

With that in mind, Lewis Cox and Jonny Drury have discussed whether it is time to explore the possibility of introducing VAR in the Championship. Here is what that have had to say:

Lewis Cox

I am mixed on this and I can't quite decide. I think there is a valid point around finances and what is at stake in the Championship.

It is the same argument in the Premier League and with things like European qualification, there is too much riding on it.

In the Championship, we have the play-off final which in the past has been labelled the £100 million game, or the most important game in football, so from that side, there is a strong argument for it.

VAR is a double edged sword and you have to weigh up the pros and cons. From a reporters' point of view, it is enjoyable covering games in the Championship without VAR.

I have covered games in the Premier League and it has killed some of the spontaneity in the game and that is sad.

Every time you watch games on the TV, the first thing you think about is VAR, even if to the naked eye you think it is the correct call. There are decisions that are made about something ten or twenty seconds before a goal that would never have been a thing before VAR.

In the Championship, you still have that raw emotion. In that sense, it is a bit of, careful what you wish for.

From another angle, it works if everything is right, and is black and white, but the problem with VAR is that many decisions are subjective.

You are paying for VAR by losing a lot of that raw emotion, so it has to be correct.

Goal line technology works, offsides should work, and it should be correct for who the balls has come off, or whether it is out of play.

Whether it is now in the Premier League, or in the future in the Championship, the fans deserve the accuracy, however, I think if it comes to the Championship as it is currently then fans will have a lesser match day experience.

Jonny Drury

The black and white argument Lewis talks about is correct. When VAR came in for the Premier League, I was very vocal in saying that for subjective decisions, like fouls, it would not work.

Not all rules in football are black and white, whereas in cricket, tennis and rugby, for the majority of the cases they are.

In football, technology works for goals, balls out of play and other things, and it should work for offside and handball, but the rules have been so convoluted by someone working in an office that even that is confusing now.

I'm going to slightly contradict myself here because even though we have subjective decisions, we also have this phrase 'clear and obvious error'.

On Friday in the Birmingham game, that decision was so clear and obvious. If the ref went to a monitor on the side of the pitch he would immediately have changed his mind, I am sure of that.

So, it could be as simple as just putting a monitor in the side of the pitch for the ref to go over to if he isn't overly convinced. On Friday, it was also a case of common sense. Not one player appealed for a penalty but he immediately gave the decision. If he'd have taken a second to take in what the reaction was, it could be different.

Even though I don't think this is a pointless debate, what I do think is that it won't happen due to financial reasons.

However, I think the debate and discussion needs to be had about whether it is possible, because of the financial side of the Championship.

Look, it isn't the referee's fault that Albion are in a financially vulnerable position at the moment.

However, if West Brom are third, or seventh and miss out on promotion or the play-offs by a point, you may argue that if this blatantly wrong decision wasn't given, then they would have won the game, or got a crucial point, because it changed the complexion of the game.

For me, I don't think it is perfect, but whether it be for certain instances, or in part, it should be explored.

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