Poll: Give VAR shots from telly
ARMCHAIR viewers get better TV pictures than VAR officials.
That is the amazing claim by former World Cup ref Graham Poll, who says it is “bananas” that video assistant referees do not get TV replays.
Poll also insists that referee Mike Jones – who was the VAR for Chelsea’s FA Cup replay with Norwich – would have overturned Willian’s yellow for diving and given a penalty had he seen the BBC coverage.
The VAR officials are based in a TV gallery at Stockley Park near Heathrow, where they get different television pictures.
Poll told talkSPORT: “I know that if Mike Jones had seen what we’d seen on the TV... but they’re not taking the television pictures. That’s something you’ve got to realise.
“They’ve got their own production at Stockley Park which is offering replays to Mike Jones and everyone else. To me that’s bananas.
“I understand that had he seen what we had seen on telly then he would have advised the match official Graham Scott to overturn the decision. Willian didn’t dive, he was fouled and it was a penalty.”