I sat in disbelief at the sheer incompetence delivered by the video assistant referee team appointed to the Tottenham Hotspur versus Liverpool game when ruling out a terrific goal by Luis Díaz.
Díaz had timed his run to perfection, and I was surprised to see the assistant referee from a good position initially raise his flag ruling he was offside.
“NO, NO, NO!” I shouted at the television! “You have got that one wrong!”
It was a clear and obvious error, so I assumed the Var would intervene and allow the goal to stand. I then awaited the intervention of Darren England, the designated Var, who was sitting alongside the experienced video assistant referee, Dan Cook, to award the goal.
Inexplicably, they stood by the on-field decision and ruled out the goal, and frankly I could not believe that another controversial decision was unfolding in front of me.
With no lines appearing to support their judgment the screenshot underpinned for me that the goal should stand. What is now clear is that because England incorrectly believed a goal had been awarded – rather than disallowed as it actually was – his response that the review was complete convinced referee Simon Hooper to stick with his decision and award Tottenham a free-kick.
The PGMOL must review its criteria of operation after this major blunder, as things cannot be allowed to go on like this.
I recall a similar error where Lee Mason operating as Var failed to apply the offside lines correctly. He quit his job for that mistake!
Clearly, the current system lacks a process that can be followed by Var specialists – not part-timers who flip between refereeing on the field and then reviewing decisions at Stockley Park.
A checklist must be drawn up and operated to avoid a repeat error, as the PGMOL issuing a statement explaining how the error took place highlights, for me, that they are not operating a clear process or checklist before a decision is communicated to the referee.
I listened to Howard Webb’s first television show where we were able to listen into the conversations between Var and referees. It was evident that too much matey chatter was taking place when a clear specific set of guidelines need to be followed to ensure that nothing is missed. Clarity of the decision-making process is so important to accuracy.
Just like a pilot, who before he takes off carries out a detailed checklist to avoid a catastrophe, the PGMOL must do the same.
With such a seismic error, will the Premier League decide that the game should be replayed? If they do not act, we will end up very soon in situations where teams like Liverpool will have concrete grounds to call for matches to be replayed in the event of an injustice, and the excuses for PGMOL to respond with are starting to run dry. There are only so many officials you can stand down or sack, after all.
I was a keen supporter of the introduction of Var but sadly I become less of a fan of it as the weeks pass by. Five years of operating the system have come and gone and what have we got?
A group of lazy referees who have become indecisive, reactive rather than proactive, over reliant on the safety net that Var should give them, who are happy to throw yellow cards around like confetti at a wedding.
The Premier League made the wrong decision not to introduce the semi-automated offside system that operated well at the World Cup.
Why not? The Premier League is the richest competition in the world, spending around £26 million per season on officiating at the top of the game, and their decision was a mistake that needs to be rectified quickly.
The Uefa-enforced automated system supports the Var operators to make faster, more reproducible and more accurate offside decisions.
It has its own 12 dedicated tracking cameras mounted underneath the roof to track the ball and up to 29 data points of each individual player, 50 times per second, calculating the exact position on the field of play.
Webb needs to create a dedicated panel of Var specialists and get them trained up and operating in a much more efficient way than the current group who referee one day and sit in Stockley Park the next.
Either bin it altogether or improve it and recognise that issuing press releases after the game is too late when the outcome of the game hinged on this one decision.
Enough is enough.
