If you take the view that VAR is simply the latest tool for the PL to control the narrative - and I do - then it needs to be removed. The joy of a goal has been eliminated from the game. One has to wait in suspended agony - "ooh, the ratings" - for the officials to, possibly, get the call wrong. And there is no consistency. We have goal-line technology and that works well. When Frank Lampard's ghost goal occurred in 2010, I could see a clear rationale for such technology. But when the Polish goalkeeper was penalised for brushing Messi having dealt with a cross in 2022, I knew it had jumped the shark.
Whistling people offside - after a 5-minute deliberation - for having a toe or kneecap the "wrong" side of the defender is really not what technology should be focusing on. No daylight between the players, the goal should stand. Call it the George Graham rule. He berated his defenders if they claimed offside against a forward who got the wrong side of them without leaving daylight between them. Rightly so.
Whatever the rights and wrongs of the technology itself - which is fine - the people controlling it (the likes of Masters and Infantino) cannot be trusted to use it in ways that benefit the game. They use it in ways that make them more money. More suspense, more drama, more ability to manipulate ratings and the narrative. Look at how points deductions - again, as inconsistent as any VAR calls - were used to artifically generate a relegation battle. They cannot be trusted to have such direct control over the game. When that ref in our cup game made the right call, was asked to go to the screen, and then reversed his own good decision (later proven correct), I knew this could never work. It's no longer a help to referees. It's just more cognitive load. In the past, when a ref made a mistake, one could at least point to the idea that it was an honest one made in the heat of the moment. Nowadays, when they have lots of time to make a decision - and still get it wrong - one is entitled to think either the technology has not helped or they are corrupt. Either way, it's doing refs no favours.