A few weeks ago, West Ham United were denied a clear penalty when Crysencio Summerville was pulled back inside the box. VAR ruled then that there was minimal – ‘not sustained’ were I think the words used – contact on the attacker and that the on-field decision should stand. At that time I wrote an article entitled ‘Most Definitely Not Fit For Purpose when I suggested that the new directive for VAR was failing: The Premier League web-site claimed in August that VAR would become ‘used with a ‘lighter touch’ whilst relying more on referee’s call and only picking out the dreadful mistakes and seeking to overturn them.’
‘The penalty that never was’ – courtesy of VAR
How on earth was that a ‘dreadful mistake’ yesterday that ended in West Ham receiving the most dubious penalty I’ve seen awarded by VAR. I don’t remember a player even appealing apart from Ings who lay on the ground for ever afterwards. I don’t blame him at all but there were no supporting shouts, no remarks from the commentary team- it was a huge surprise to all when the on-field review was suggested.
Fine- so we may have benefitted this time. But how is it in the interests of fairness, of the benefit of the spectacle, when such poor decisions are repeated and frankly magnified by the use of video which resulted in the awarding of a penalty which even the most die-hard West Ham supporter would have to agree was ‘soft’.
Reported in dailymail.co.uk, with a subheading reading:
‘David Coote awarded West Ham’s penalty in win over Man United because he didn’t want to ‘UPSET a superior’ after VAR Michael Oliver recommended a review’.
Gary Neville – admittedly as unbiased as me – suggested ‘I’m not sure David Coote was anywhere near thinking it was a penalty, and it was a big shock.”
“Every team gets a bad decision but that wasn’t right. The interesting thing was he [on-field referee ] must have watched it eight times when he went to the monitor. I’m screaming at the TV ‘he doesn’t think it’s a penalty’ but then he overturns his original decision,’
It is ruining the game when play is pulled back for a slow motion replay to be pored over for about five minutes in the effort to justify changing a decision. Better to rely on the on-field call and do away with the whole VAR machinery as an unproven gimmick. At least then for the 60,000 plus spectators there would be genuine, flowing entertainment instead of “stop-start-maybe-no-yes- what” – going on. It is ruining the spectacle.
These mistakes are worse than when we relied upon the man in black in the middle. No doubt some West Ham fans will say ‘who cares, we got three points out of a VAR mistake’ – but look at the bigger picture, please – week on week these errors are eroding the spectacle, the genuine independence of the man in black and the integrity of the sport as conspiracy theories abound.
And ‘that’ decision might have cost one manager his job. Is that right?
