BE careful what you wish for.

The introduction of the VAR system was the result of months (years?) of whingeing about refereeing standards, of coaches complaining about poor decisions, of fans booing officials, of club owners demanding certain refs are banned from doing their games.

So, after a semi-final in which the new system got its first proper workout, are we all completely satisfied that it’s the panacea to a new, improved version of football?

Like hell.

The first decision (for Jordy Buijs’s goal) at Allianz Stadium on Saturday caused as much consternation as any controversial refereeing decision that has ever gone before it, although at least Kenny Lowe had the good grace afterwards to admit that it was pointless complaining.

If only everyone had followed that example in the preceding years of the A-League, we might not ever have needed the thing in the first place.

Unfortunately, we live in a blame culture, indicative of the way society has changed, and football hasn’t escaped.

COMMENT: The only way VAR will work in football

Fall over at work? Forget the first aid kit, your first port of call is the lawyer.

In football, the VAR system is the modern form of compensation - for a mollycoddled world that sees injustice at every turn, and believes technology is always the answer. The refs - the pantomime villains, the circus freaks - aren’t allowed human failings.

A screen shows a video review during the A-League Source: AAP

Coaches have led the way in this regard with their petulant behaviour on the sidelines. Maybe it’s time we banished them to the stands permanently?

They even claim bad refereeing decision costs them their jobs. But is that really true? Of the A-League coaches that have departed this season, one resigned due to family reasons (John Van’t Schip), one quit taking “full responsibility” for poor performances (Ernie Merrick), and one (Mark Jones) was sacked after his team finished bottom.

Refs? They didn’t warrant a single mention in the reports that followed on from their demise, and there’s a reason for that. Most of the time (92% according to a study on Premier League refs in 2012), they get things right.

Yet players follow the lead of their coach, and often attribute poor results to key decisions that go against them - though they rarely accept culpability for missing chances, or tackles, for failing to track their man, or for making errant passes that leads to the opposition scoring.

Match referee Peter Green gestures for a video review Source: AAP

Fans pick up on this “victim” culture, and so we have the situation whereby at the weekend, the discussion didn’t just centre on whether Strebre Delovski had made the right decision on Bobo’s interference with Djulbic (or lack of) - but also whether he was “favouring” Sydney FC - presumably because they just happen to have been involved in all three VAR decisions so far, and because FFA is based in Sydney.

Yes, that’s the same Sydney FC which, prior to this season, hadn’t won a trophy in seven years! If there was any “bias” involved on behalf of FFA employees (as has been alleged for years), they clearly didn’t get the memo.

The VAR system is with us on a trial basis only of course - if FFA is to keep it for next season, it will apparently cost in excess of $500,000. Half a million bucks, for something that has been used three times in fourteen games. That’s akin to having a marquee player and using him off the bench just thrice in half a season!

With the game perilously short of cash, $500,000 (if it exists at all), could surely be better utilised elsewhere? Maybe we could use it to pay the collision codes to bugger off elsewhere for a week or two, and allow our players to showcase their talents on something that doesn’t resemble a ploughed-up paddy field?

More seriously, perhaps a little more promotion for the finals, so we can start to connect to the massive playing base, regularly spruiked as being the passport to being the biggest sport in the country? Or how about lowering ticket prices? Or registration fees? Or as a seed fund to help expand a competition badly in need of more clubs? All far more efficient uses of cash in my opinion.

If the VAR system becomes a permanent feature, it will take much of the spontaneity out of the most joyous act on the football field - that of hitting the back of the net. It will also inevitably bleed into other areas of the game. One A-League coach has already suggested to me that it should be used for second yellows, not just straight reds. What next? For offside? Throw-ins?

If we’re going to forensically dissect every microsecond of each passage of play, then the lunatics have truly taken over the asylum. Far better to instigate a campaign of respect, to demand better behaviour is shown towards officials.

Change the culture, not the game.

Because as Saturday also proved, the technology is still operated by humans, and therefore open to human interpretation - as we all knew anyway. It will never stop the debate over officialdom. Ever.