Without a shred of doubt Wolverhapton Wanderers are now my favourite club in the entire world.

The team from the Midlands has been on the end of some absolutely appalling VAR decisions this season, many of which have defied logic and cost them points.

But instead of merely stamping their feet and crying about the injustice of it all – like some other clubs have been doing – Wolves are taking their disgust to the next level and trying to get the controversial system thrown out entirely.

It’s been five years since VAR was introduced in the Premier League but nobody can convince me, or Wolves for that matter, that football is better for it. It isn’t. And that’s not just me and Wolves saying it either. A recent BBC survey showed that 50 per cent of fans want it removed, with less than 20 per cent saying it should stay.

With dissatisfaction with the system at an all-time high, Wolves decided enough was enough and officially put forward a proposal to the Premier League for video assistant referees to be scrapped from next season.

VAR is a negative, inaccurate, pointless system that is merely driving a technological wedge between the sport and its fans

What we have here is a club that sees VAR for what it truly is: a negative, inaccurate, pointless system that is merely driving a technological wedge between the sport and its fans.

“The price we are paying for a small increase in accuracy is at odds with the spirit of our game,” the club said in a statement before listing several reasons why it needs to go.

To be fair, I agree with every single point they made, from slowing down the game to reducing respect for onfield officials. But one reason really jumped out at me: “The impact on goal celebrations and the spontaneous passion that makes football special.”

Now as a Sheffield United fan I haven’t had many opportunities over the last season to celebrate goals. But even so, on those rare occasions when we did actually score, I found myself refusing to celebrate until VAR gave me permission to do so. And that could be several minutes later. That isn’t proper football. That isn’t the sport I have grown up loving over the last half century. Taking away the most basic and fundamental pleasure of celebrating a goal is taking away the very soul of game, and even those weird people who embrace VAR must realise this is just plain wrong.

The Wolves proposal will now be voted on by all 20 Premiership clubs during their annual meeting on June 6.

Sadly, for this VAR-free dream to become a reality, 14 out of the 20 clubs need to vote in favour of the motion, and that isn’t going to happen. The bigger clubs who use VAR in Europe aren’t going to vote for its removal, and the Premier League, as an entity, is still in love with it.

But at the very least, Wolves have sown substantial seeds of doubt and provoked a serious debate about where football should be heading.

The best we can probably hope for out of this situation – and by we, I mean those of us who realise VAR is destroying football – is that some of the problems raised by Wolves on their list will be tackled, eliminated or at least reduced.

However, let’s be frank, if we find ourselves talking about VAR problems and issues again in a year’s time, I wouldn’t be surprised if another vote is held. And next year we can live in hope that we reach that magical number 14...

 

I love it when a plan comes together...

I couldn’t stop smirking when I heard Chelsea chairperson Todd Boehly say recently that the team’s recent good form is proof that the club’s plan is ‘coming together’. Did anyone check if this guy had spent the afternoon on the shandies?

There are a lot of things Boehly can be blamed for since he bought Chelsea – excessive use of the company credit card being one – but even his biggest supporter wouldn’t accuse him of having a ‘plan’.

Spending a billion pounds on players and blasting through four different managers in just a couple of years hardly makes you think the club is on some sort of carefully mapped-out trajectory.

No, it reeks of desperation combined with a complete absence of knowledge of anything to do with the sport you are involved in.

Incredibly, at the time of writing, there are still doubts over Mauricio Pochettino’s future, with the manager himself having to field questions about whether he would still be at the club next season.

“I have one year more under contract here and no one says nothing to me. I suppose I’m going to be here...” he said.

So, Boehly hasn’t even confirmed with Poch that everything is going well, yet he is still banging on that the upturn in performances is all part of his plan.

That Pochettino has managed to polish this particular footballing turd and knock a collection of overpriced individuals into something resembling a team says a lot about the Argentinian’s coaching ability and man management skills.

This improvement is not, in any way, shape or form, a direct result of Boehly’s masterful planning, and it would make me quite ill, were I a Chelsea fan, to hear him trying to take credit for it.

Next season we may well see a Chelsea team that is competing at the top level once again. And, if that happens, you would expect Todd to be jumping on the bandwagon and claiming it is all down to him.

Don’t know about you, but I think I preferred Roman Abramovich’s behind-the-scenes approach to ownership over Boehly’s preference for dancing in everyone else’s limelight...

 

Oh yeah, the finale

Okay, it would be highly unprofessional of me to not at least acknowledge the fact that today is the final day of the season and we will know by early evening who the Premier League champions are.

The sensible money is obviously on Manchester City to – yawn – yet again – bigger yawn – win the league. If they beat West Ham United at home they will be crowned kings for the fourth time in a row, and the world will feel just that little bit more tedious and predictable than before.

Of course, Arsenal are still trying desperately to stop that from happening and it is testament to their improvement this season that they have pushed City all the way to the very end.

But while I can see the Gunners getting past Everton this afternoon, I can’t see West Ham, even in David Moyes’ final game in charge, managing to put the brakes on the Manchester City juggernaut.

So, relegation is sorted, the Champions League slots sown up, and the title race is all over, bar the shouting.

As last days of the season go, it’s not going to be a thrill a minute...

 

E-mail: James.calvert@timesofmalta.com

Twitter: @Maltablade