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When Darren England steps out at Wembley on Saturday flanked by Reece James and Bernardo Silva, he might be relieved to be out on the pitch.
The FA Cup final referee was the video assistant referee (VAR) on duty for Arsenal's win at West Ham United in the Premier League last weekend. His intervention led to Callum Wilson's equalising goal for the Hammers being disallowed and had a telling impact on the title race and the relegation battle.
VAR and the FA Cup do not fit together
England will be in the middle for Saturday's final between Chelsea and Manchester City, with Peter Bankes picking through the details from elsewhere.
The idea of a VAR trial was always a fallacy. Its introduction was a fait accompli from day one and the process is still a total nonsense everywhere it's used even as we approach the tenth anniversary of its first match proper in 2016.
Nevertheless, England's first VAR match was designated as a 'trial' and was not in the Premier League, but the FA Cup. Brighton & Hove Albion and Crystal Palace shared that dubious honour in January 2018.
VAR has been force-fed to Premier League supporters since the start of the 2019-20 season and the FA Cup has been dragged along for the hellacious ride.
Instead of capitalising on the FA Cup's unique characteristics and complications to turn the absence of VAR into a point of differentiation, the FA jumped in two-footed and ruptured their own cruciate ligament. You'd think they would have known.
The FA Cup's deployment of VAR is farcical. For a while, it was used at Premier League grounds and in the semi-finals and final at Wembley but not elsewhere, even in the very same round. Now, it's in place in some rounds but not others.
Newcastle United's fourth-round win against Aston Villa in this season's competition was a low-point for Kavanagh, who didn't have England or anyone else on VAR to point out a couple of clangers. In the fifth round, there was VAR at Port Vale.
The FA Cup could scrap VAR and get a new lease of life
This season's FA Cup was the first to require the installation of VAR technology at grounds outside the Premier League.
It was an improvement in the sense that every match in any given round would be played by the same rules, but the difference from one round to the next is just as compelling a reason to oppose the use of VAR in the FA Cup.
The FA like to talk about the FA Cup as it should be revered: the world's oldest football competition, entered by 747 teams in England, Wales and the Channel Islands this season, all in one glorious alchemic melting pot of football heritage.
What the authorities tend not to acknowledge is that VAR and indeed goal-line technology represent the biggest split in that theoretical uniformity in the competition's 155-year history.
If VAR is used in the fifth round, why not the fourth? Why not the third?
If VAR is used after the Premier League teams join the competition in the third round, why should that be any different for the first and the second rounds?
If VAR is used in the competition proper, are the matches from November onwards more important than those played on the first weekend of August in the extra preliminary round? To whom?
Money is the answer to all of those questions but cost is no justification for some rounds of the tournament being less equal than others. The bottom line is that FA Cup can't afford VAR.
In FourFourTwo's opinion, that should have been seen as an opportunity. The FA Cup is different. It's special. Its essence is unrivalled anywhere in the football world and the organisers wasted a chance to plant their flag and say, "No, not here!" to VAR.
For all the bluster of pundits over refereeing decisions in April and May, the FA Cup is just as important in August. That's a strength, not a weakness.
In a sport weighed down by week after week of review and debate, debate and review, there could have been no finer sanctuary than its greatest club tournament. If you've ever watched months of football with VAR and then just one match without it, you'll understand.
Football's governing bodies aren't the most adept of organisations when it comes to self-reflection but the game's not yet up for the FA Cup.
Season after season fans discuss whether the magic is still there, whether the richest clubs are so powerful that their clout is distorting the perfect football competition.
The inconsistent use of replays is another bone of contention for clubs lower down the pyramid but scrapping VAR in the FA Cup entirely is the walk-back that could give it the boost it needs.
