Macclesfield Express

Campbell’s internatio­nal goal tally

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“Obviously, there’s the other one with Argentina, but the Portugal one would have taken us to a semi-final. If you look at it again there are people jumping up for the ball, not holding anyone, the ball spun this way, the keeper that way. OK, John Terry is there (but) it’s a goal. I thought I’d scored, I’m in the crowd!

“With the Argentina goal, Shearer is there, the ball is there, the keeper has come up, but it’s there for him to save it. I think it’s a goal.

“It’s just ‘whatever’ now, but I think if (VAR) was in play we’d get one of those goals.”

Tired of the controvers­ies and debates caused by decisions like those, FIFA finally agreed to trial video replays in 2016 and then introduced VAR at last summer’s World Cup in Russia.

Unlike most European leagues, the Premier League chose not to introduce VAR for this season, but has subsequent­ly confirmed that the system will be used next season and UEFA has also decided to bring it in for the knockout stages of the Champions League and Europa League.

Campbell sees its eventual introducti­on throughout the profession­al game as inevitable, although he believes there are still some issues to be ironed out.

“It can work for you and it can work against you and there is still interpreta­tion there,” he said.

“It’s not cut and dried yet, it’s work in progress. But obviously it’s the future and you’ve got to have something like that because there’s too much on games now and I think the players will just get used to it.”

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