VAR gets one penalty call right – but two badly wrong
For the second time in this World Cup, I am having to chalk this game off as a catalogue of errors from the video assistant referee, while I am also seriously disappointed with the sheer lack of consistency from the referee.
England may have won the game but two incidents involving Harry Kane were clear and obvious mistakes by the officials, and the referee, in particular, was poor in many aspects. What we are hoping for, ultimately, is that VAR covers up the cracks of referees not doing their jobs properly, but, unfortunately, it was not delivered in this game.
There were two clear examples of grappling and holding in the penalty area on Kane and both decisions were easier to make than the Tunisia spot-kick.
The decision against Kyle Walker in the first half was fairly straightforward, it was naive from the England defender and he is probably not used to this because we see it every week in the Premier League. He was caught facing his own goal with his arm in a position which left him exposed to the referee. VAR agreed with the referee and did not intervene.
Having punished England, the man in the middle should have done the same to Tunisia for a clear grappling offence later in the half on Kane, although John Stones appeared to push a Tunisian player in the build-up. It was an obvious error by the match referee, so where was VAR? It was a huge mistake by the referee and his colleagues in the video room in Moscow.
The second-half incident with Kane was equally obvious, yet the inconsistency from the officials again was staggering. Also, Tunisia went unpunished for time-wasting and not retreating at free-kicks. Spectators will have walked away appalled by the inconsistency, also debating the efficiency of VAR.