No, chaps, you got it WRONG over Harry’s goal
HARRY KANE was in an offside position when the ball was played in the build-up to the award of his penalty against Chelsea — the VAR system got it wrong. I wrote in these pages yesterday that they made the right decision. However, having now examined a new view from a wider-angled ‘tactical’ camera, it shows Kane’s upper body in an offside position. Chelsea found and produced this angle, but I believe an almost identical angle would also have been available to the VAR official (Chris Kavanagh), as it is there for off-the-ball incidents. I have seen the reasoning from the referees’ bosses PGMOL in defence of the decision, claiming the new angle is frozen after Toby Alderweireld has played the ball. I do not agree. Look at the body shape of Chelsea defender Marcos Alonso. It is the same in both the original frame used to make the decision and the new one when Alderweireld plays his pass. The 16-metre camera the VAR official studied does appear to show Kane onside through its use of the calibrated offside line. So Kavanagh would have been convinced, like the TV audience, that Kane was onside and he quickly moved on to the penalty decision. The tactical camera does not have calibrated lines so this may have been why he did not use it. There is time pressure on the VAR official, too, which comes from the PGMOL. They do not want the match delayed for too long. If time was not an issue then the video referee and the operators could have scanned all the cameras available to make the correct decision.
5 WAYS TO IMPROVE VAR
1 Relax the time pressure. While working for ITV at the World Cup, I saw how the main broadcaster produces replays — they have 20 operators scanning for the best angles from 35 to 40 cameras. With VAR in England, you will have two operators looking at 16 to 24 cameras. They need more time to take in all of the information. If time is a pressure then they will be rushed into mistakes.
2 Referees should take a look. The video review area is there for referees to take a second look at incidents rather than relying on the advice of the VAR official. For the big calls you should always do this and not just rely on the video referee.
3 Keep the flag down. Assistant referees should not be flagging for marginal offside decisions. Let play develop and then review the offside call through VAR.
4 Communication. If an incident is being reviewed by VAR then let the players, coaching staff and supporters know about it through use of body language — by pointing to your ear and keeping the ball in your arms. This would prevent farcical scenes such as when Burnley were about to take a penalty on Saturday before the referee intervened to award an earlier offside.
5 Transparency. Use the big screens inside the stadium to show the process and also to provide sound of the referee and video referee in conversation.