Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
HACKETT: VAR IS MAKING A BAD REFEREEING SITUATION EVEN WORSE
3 MINS: MANE 0-1 19 MINS: KEANE 72 MINS: SALAH 1-2
KEITH HACKETT believes refereeing standards are in a “bad place” and VAR is actually making things worse.
Former Premier League referee Hackett (right) insists Michael Oliver missed the “worst and easiest” decision of the season after failing to send off Jordan Pickford for his X-rated challenge on Liverpool defender Virgil van Dijk.
Hackett likened Everton keeper Pickford’s lunge to Roy Keane’s infamous tackle on Manchester City midfielder Alf Inge Haaland in 2001 when David Elleray sent off the former United hard man. Hackett, the former Professional Game Match Officials Limited chief, said: “We’ve got the worst decision of the season and the easiest decision for any referee to make because it was an act of brutality. There’s a duty of care to an opponent and that seems to have been abandoned.
“Pickford is off the ground, out of control and to cap it all he’d done a scissor movement. He’s dug the hole and then buried him.
“You have to go back to the Roy Keane incident where he’s gone out to hurt Alf Inge Haaland to see one as bad. Elleray was the referee, didn’t have VAR, but he saw it and sent off Keane. Thankfully, it’s rare for it to happen but all anyone wants is for when it does happen, for it to be sp spotted. referee, If linesman you’re on or the the pitch VAR as a and not seen it, it’s ridiculous. A referee should have a sixth ssense as to when something is notno right.
“Refereeing is in a bad place. I know I used to make mistakes but I don’t think I made them as often as this or on incidents like this.
“It’s our top referee and the fact he’s not seen that incident is amazing. Referees are using VAR as
IT’S SICK FROM PICK Pickford gets away with this shocking challenge on Liverpool’s
Van Dijk the lifebelt. It shouldn’t be like that. Why didn’t Michael Oliver see it? I think he, like a lot of referees, think they’ve got VAR as a back-up.”
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David Coote was the VAR at Goodison Park but, bizarrely, they swap roles at Leeds tonight so Oliver is VAR and Coote is the referee, which Hackett believes is wrong and a potential recipe for disaster.
“However you look at it, they are bringing baggage into that game,” said Hackett.
“They will be dwelling on a game where they’ve made a major error.”
Hackett also played a role in bringing in goal-line technology, which has been a huge success in the Premier League, but insists the technology on offside decisions from VAR does not meet the standard.
Liverpool’s Jordan Henderson had his effort ruled out but Hackett is not convinced that, even with video technology, it was the right decision.
He said: “To get the accuracy of a ball crossing a goal-line takes seven cameras around each goal and cameras operating at 500 frames per second. With the VAR cameras on most offsides you have cameras operating on 50 frames a second.
“It is not accurate enough to judge that player was offside.”