Synopsis

The video assistant referee system in football has revealed notable blunders in officiating, calling into question our confidence in third-party expertise. The author draws parallels between these sports scenarios and society's dependency on experts, indicating that many individuals derive belief from personal bias over factual proof. This trend underscores the intricate dynamics of trust that permeate contemporary existence.

Trust me when I say I have trust issues. Except for trustworthy ones, I don't trust people. And systems I trust even less. But if there's something that has fortified my healthy – and, dare I say, pleasurable – distrust of trust, it was last Sunday's Manchester derby.



In the 60th min of the game, Manchester City's Josko Gvardiol crossed the ball into the Manchester United box that Erling Haaland put away from the most acute of swinging saloon door angles. A few seconds later, the linesman raised his flag, calling the Locks-less Goal Monster offside, disallowing the goal. Fair enough. But then, VAR (Video Assistant Referee), football's ocular supreme court, intervened. Haaland, we were told, was onside. So, goal.



Except in replays, we could see City's Enzo Fernandez diving ahead before trying to connect Gvardiol's cross, missing it, and clearly offside. Two days later, professional referee chief Howard Webb admitted this was an 'error of judgment,' blaming 'tunnel vision.' Meaning, VAR was so obsessed with Haaland that it missed Fernandez caught offside. But the Sunday scoreline City 1 Utd 0 stood etched in Old Trafford stone.

Fortunately, for me and my blood pressure, this was a neutral match. Unlike if Arsenal – or Mohun Bagan – were playing, I had no skin in this game, except, perhaps, for the usual schadenfreude I get watching Manchester United lose.



What's true for football, holds truer for GDP figures, health tips, election results… After all, it's far easier to spot a player offside or onside in a game than to confirm or deny GDP numbers, understand the intricacies of human physiology, or check EVM circuitry.



For an overwhelming number of things, we depend on outsourced certainty. Someone apparently knows. Someone apparently checks. We depend on experts. Even though the trouble is that everyone's an expert these days. Which is why, for all practical purposes, it becomes up to you to accept that source, or not – which usually depends on whether you like that source, or not. You'll be surprised how many times I haven't believed a public figure simply because he looks like one of very avuncular uncles.



Take the New York Times bestseller list. NYT says its rankings use confidential sales reports from thousands of selling locations and are 'statistically weighted'. But it's a curated, editorial product that's certainly not an objective or transparent record of raw sales. It's a list of 'bestsellers' in keeping with NYT's 'ideology' the same way the 'People's Republic of China' bears the indelible brand of Communist Party of China©. You can simply choose to suspend disbelief.



So, if you care to trust or mistrust things, you've already decided to do so regardless of the evidence fat cats and top dogs drag in before you. You believe or not regardless of any trust deficit.



In this world of black or white, us or them, veg or non-veg, we have become oddly deferential to something as complicated as trust. Sure, scepticism as default presents its own problems. I can't become, before breakfast, a statistician capable of confirming national growth numbers, an election-security specialist, a publishing-data analyst, and a Premier League referee. I choose to accept regardless of trust or distrust.



At the June-July World Cup, an absolutely stunning run by Egypt's Haissem Hassan ultimately led to a frictionless beauty of a goal by Mostafa Ziko against Messi's Argentina. But an eternal 2 min and a few seconds later, VAR disallowed the goal for what it discovered to have been a fouling tackle by Marwan Attia on Lisandro Martinez some 17 seconds before Ziko's goal.



The goal was disallowed, making retrospective tax on Vodafone seem like a decision in the here and now. Never mind that Egypt went 2-0 up, but eventually lost 2-3 to the subsequent World Champions. Now, I love Argentina as much as I love my wife. But disallowing that Egypt goal was like a neta telling me that India will be ahead of all countries across sectors by August 15, 1947, while I dodge a collapsing building on my left and navigate a non-war-torn ravaged road on my right.



So, trust me when I say I have trust issues. Fatalism keeps me jolly.

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