We should definitely get rid of the video referee, and there are multiple reasons why!

The video referee is one of the most divisive subjects in modern-day rugby league, should we have it in place, or should we not?

Frankly, I can’t believe it is even a debate because the video referee is one of the worst ideas in the history of the greatest sport on earth.

The video referee simply doesn’t work, it never has and it never will. A video referee is tucked away in a video booth, he is not in the white-hot atmosphere of the game he is adjudicating on and is completely removed from the reality of the contest, everyone who has ever been to a rugby league match knows, that watching it at home on the telly is nothing like the same as actually being there in the ground where the drama is unfolding, therefore the same must be said for the video referee.

The argument also goes further than the video referee merely being removed from the action, because he is also increasingly being asked to guess what has happened because video can be pixelated or a player can simply be in the way, so the video official simply cannot see if a ball is grounded or not, or if a limb of any description is in touch or not, it is an absolute lottery, just like it is for the man in the middle on the pitch itself.

When all is said and done, a video referee is, after all, still having to guess, just like the on-field official, it is effectively making very little, or no difference at all, given the amount of times they cannot see clearly whether a ball is dropped etc, we’re asking the match official to give his/her version of what has happened, which surely disposes of the need for a video referee anyway.

Another regular subject for video technology is also the Captain’s Challenge which they have in the NRL, which for me would be just another pointless television gimmick, spawned by the ridiculous idea of the video referee.

As a rugby league journalist myself, I can definitely state that the video ref has been the cause of more frustration in the press box than any other Sky Sports development.

What the video referee does is kill the atmosphere of a game, it has made match officials lazy and it has just increased the guesswork that the official on the pitch can do anyway.

For years, people complained about not having a video referee at every game, and now we have, so people are complaining about them being used too often. Last night I heard Nick Pinkney on BBC Radio Humberside saying that the referee in the Hull KR v Wigan game went to the video referee for one of the home team’s tries (maybe the Peta Hiku one, but don’t quote me) just for the sheer theatre of it when it was obviously a try, that is indicative of the frustration it causes in the press box at every single game, without fail.

I have just seen the Salford v Warrington game, with some high-quality tries, but most of them were awarded or disallowed by the video referee, including what was arguably the most obvious penalty try I have ever seen in over 45 years of watching the game.

The answer here is quite simple because I can say with absolute certainty that every decision given by the video referee in that game and countless others that I watch every year, could easily be given by the on-field referee and, in the case of tries/no tries, by in-goal judges who are right there in front of the action and therefore have the very best perspective.

A referee is there to ensure fair play, they are not there to press buttons, look at video replays that are about as clear as mud on a foggy night most of the time and they are NOT, I repeat NOT there to increase television viewing ratings, which is after all, being brutally honest, why it was introduced in the first place.

Yes, referees on the pitch can and do make mistakes, they are only human after all, but what video referees have caused is a dramatic drop in the quality of match officials, I’m 50 years old and I can remember the game before Sky Sports took it over, and yes, we got frustrated in the 70s and 80s, but nowhere near as much as we do now, with the standard of officiating.

It has been shown and proved beyond any shadow of a doubt that video officials are a completely useless, pointless toy in professional rugby league, it has had a drastic effect on the quality of the game on the field and it needs to be ditched at the earliest opportunity.

Get rid of it, reinstate in-goal judges and you have five pairs of eyes keeping an eye on the action, at source, introduce the video referee and all that shows is a lack of trust in match officials and the processes they have to go through to be trained as such.

The game simply has to get rid of video officials for its own good. Our game was a sport born out of protest, it has kept evolving, but not every part of that evolution has done it any good.

If you want theatre, go to see a bunch of actors treading the boards, if you want live, sporting drama, you would be able to get it at a rugby league match, which doesn’t have a video referee, when the people on the pitch are the biggest, indeed only influence on proceedings, not from someone however many miles away from the action.

Written by Ian Judson (Site contributor & Hull FC fan)