One of the arguments that often gets thrown back in my face when I complain about VAR is that the system works perfectly well everywhere else, and only the English are making a complete dog’s breakfast of it. And that, to a certain extent, is true.

In places like Germany, Italy, France and Spain it does seem to operate considerably smoother than it does in the Premier League, probably because they don’t have professionally incompetent officials sitting in front of the monitors.

However, that doesn’t mean European football is immune to controversy and, in fact, one of the most disturbing VAR stories right now comes from the Belgian top-flight.

Last weekend, a referee wrongly disallowed a Club Brugge goal in their game with KV Mechelen. Despite it being a clear and highly significant error, the VAR team decided not to intervene, and the match went on to end 0-0.

Now, in a move that threatens to plunge football into chaos, Club Brugge are insisting the game be replayed. And it’s hard to argue with the reasoning behind their demand...

“Club Brugge can accept human error happens on the field. However, this is not a matter of human error but of a professional-technical error,” a club statement said.

If Club Brugge get their way, the floodgates will burst open across the continent

As I said just a couple of weeks ago, this is where things get scary. Because if the Belgian authorities give in to Club Brugge’s relatively legitimate demands – either of their own free will or on the back of the threat of legal action – then it will open a can of worms that may never be closed again.

This Belgian incident is reminiscent of the Liverpool case a couple of months ago when a VAR error cost them in their match against Tottenham Hotspur. Although Jurgen Klopp said he wanted a replay, the club itself never went as far as officially demanding one.

But you can bet your bottom dollar that if Club Brugge get their way, the floodgates will burst open across the continent.

I would say there are at least 20 games in England alone this season where VAR has either failed to intervene when it should have or where it has got involved but made an utter mess of the intervention. Can you imagine the chaos if all those wronged clubs decide they want those games replayed?

For more than a century, football has been played on the basis that referees and linesmen will make the odd mistake but that those errors will balance themselves out over the course of the season. Introducing VAR has given clubs the excuse to no longer accept football’s imperfections and to insist on every major decision being right every single time; which is entirely impossible.

If clubs who are on the receiving end of a VAR cock-up now decide to take things further – as Club Brugge seem to be intent on doing – then football will descend into proper chaos.

I said before that VAR could be the death of football. I suspect Club Brugge are about to stick the first knife in...

An official moment of madness

It was always likely that a top-level European referee would one day be assaulted on the pitch.

Given that some people insist on treating football as more important than life or death, a physical attack of some sort was probably inevitable.

However, what I don’t think anyone saw coming was that this assault would be carried out by a club official; and not just any official but the club president of one of Turkey’s top teams; in other words, a man who is supposed to be setting an example of restraint, decorum and maturity; not losing his mind like a common hooligan.

In case you missed it, as the final whistle blew in the match between MKE Ankaragücü and Çaykur Rizespor, MKE president Faruk Koca walked purposefully onto the pitch and, without breaking his stride, landed a solid punch on referee Halil Umut Meler’s face. The blow knocked him to the ground where he was also kicked for good measure, ending up needing hospital treatment for a fracture.

It was one of the most astonishing things I have seen in all my years of watching the sport and something I don’t think I have ever witnessed in European football before.

The Turkish authorities moved swiftly, postponing games while they tried to come to terms with the fact that one of the very people who should be helping make the sport safer and more accommodating for match officials, had done the precise opposite.

Koca was arrested and condemned by just about every person in the world of football; and I have no doubt he will be removed from his club by the time you read this. In fact, he should be banned from football for life at every single level. He shouldn’t even be allowed to watch it on television or own a ball.

My concern is that whatever punishment is dished out to this moronic individual, the damage has already been done.

The vast majority of fans in Turkey – and everywhere else for that matter – are law-abiding, sensible people who wouldn’t dream of doing something stupid to an official. They are more than capable of restraining themselves and acting with dignity no matter how passionately they love their team or how badly they think the referee has performed.

But there is a tiny minority of idiots who will see what this muppet did, realise it is actually quite easy to get up close to match officials, and use Koca’s actions as inspiration for their own moment of madness.

I’m hoping this turns out to be one-off, isolated incident. But I fear it might be the first of many...

E-mail: James.calvert@timesofmalta.com

Twitter: @maltablade