VAR
in the Premier League has felt "made up as they go along" after another
spate of controversy, the Sunday Supplement panel agreed.
Giovani Lo Celso was given a major let off by the video official David Coote
in Spurs' 2-1 defeat at Chelsea in Saturday's early kick-off after stamping
on Cesar Azpilicueta - but within minutes the PGMOL, the Premier League's
professional refereeing body, had apologised for the 'human error' and
admitted he should have been sent off.
Coote was also in the chair for a controversy-laden Leicester defeat to
Manchester City later in the day, where Kevin De Bruyne avoided punishment
for what appeared a clear handball from a free-kick before Dennis Praet was
penalised when the ball hit his arm later in the game.
On that occasion, the PGMOL said De Bruyne's hand had been in a "natural
position to protect his face", which left Jonathan Northcroft, chief
football writer at the
Sunday Times, feeling referee chiefs had no
consistency to their approach with managing the still fledgling VAR system.
"It's a natural position if you want to put your hand in front of your face
to protect it, but that's been a penalty since football began," he said.
"With that explanation from the PGMOL, there's been a sense ever since the
implementation that they've been making things up as they go along.
"They haven't had a consistent vision of how they want it implemented, it
always feels made up. Yesterday really felt like that. There were two
decisions, very similar, different reasons, different outcomes.
"I've always tried to be a journalist who doesn't write about the
refereeing. My brother is a referee in Scotland, I just try to focus on the
match but it's becoming impossible. Yesterday you couldn't ignore VAR at
Leicester.
"It was a great game of football between the two teams, Manchester City were
more or less on their best form, Leicester were really dangerous at moments,
it would have been lovely to write about that - but we had three contentious
decisions involving the same VAR that we'd had making the decisions in the
Spurs-Chelsea game.
"I don't think we've had a situation before yesterday where Stockley Park
has commented almost straight away. That seemed a very new thing. Brendan
Rodgers brought it up, saying he found it staggering that he was driving in
and the VAR who was about to do his game was already the subject of an
apology from Stockley Park by then.
"Why did they suddenly explain in the middle of a matchday that they had got
something wrong when they hadn't before? It just feels like that's reacting
in the moment."
What next?
The International Football Association's Board, IFAB, will meet in Belfast
next week to discuss issues including VAR and the laws of the game, with the
controversy around the video system likely to be on the agenda.
Darren Lewis, football writer at the
Daily Mirror, told the
Supplement there was a simple solution to the current issues officials are
facing.
He said: "I think what's going to come out of it is them asking why the
English are not using the instruction we've given them? I think everyone is
tired of talking about but it's so simple - just have a monitor, and if you
have to look at an incident for more than 30 seconds or a minute, it's not
clear and obvious.
"You could have a situation where you're unsighted, like in the Burnley
game, Mike Dean was unsighted. He spoke in the week on a podcast where he
talked about how as an experienced referee, players understand if he makes a
decision they can go along with it because he's got time in the game.
"But you saw in that game a couple of incidences where goals were chalked
off, I felt so sorry for Bournemouth. No one was screaming about it because
it's tiny Bournemouth, but they had a legitimate goal which would've changed
the course of the game chalked off because it earlier hit someone's shoulder
and was deemed as handball. Absolutely ludicrous."
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