USELESS REFEREES ARE USING VAR AS A BLUNT TOOL TO BLUDGEON THE FUN OUT OF THE GAME
IT WOULD appear we have run out of useless officials in England and now have to import them from Australia. Jarred Gillett (below) was the VAR at Chelsea on Saturday who summoned the equally inadequate Andy Madley — not even the best referee in his family, let alone the country — to the pitchside monitor to double up on the incompetence, when West Ham equalised late in the game.
Gillett was wrong yet Madley did not have the confidence to make that plain, so went with the invention of a foul.
Until Graeme Souness spoke up yesterday morning, there was not one single professional who agreed. Danny Murphy, Tony Pulis, Alan Shearer, Robbie Earle, Chris Sutton, Fara
Williams and Glenn Murray all looked at the call for various media outlets and were united in their condemnation. Even the PGMOL confirmed a mistake, plus another in the Newcastle game.
The VAR on both occasions was, as ever, programmed to spot fouls by the attacking team but not by defenders. So Lee Mason saw Joe Willock crashing into Crystal Palace goalkeeper Vincente Guaita, but not the push from Tyrick Mitchell that caused him to do this. Mitchell then deflected the ball into his own net which was justice, but VAR made sure it wasn’t done. As usual, VAR fails because, the moment a goal is scored, it is the job of an official to find a way of disallowing it. In the hands of the poorest referees it has become a blunt instrument to bludgeon the fun out of the game. Referees are, by definition, officious types. They do not need further encouragement in that area. The brief is all wrong. Benefit of doubt to the attacking side. That was a good rule. Before the intervention of technology, linesmen were told in the tightest calls to favour the side going forward. Now, football has been turned on its head.
If it’s not a Newcastle goal, then it’s a Newcastle penalty, because Mitchell fouled Willock. But, no, both referee Michael Salisbury and VAR Mason ignore this and instead punish Newcastle twice. Once by disallowing, a second time for not recognising the first foul, by a Crystal Palace defender on a Newcastle forward, in the penalty area.
And yes, standards are a problem. Too many referees are weak, too many overpromoted. Yet it is wrong to say there is no issue with VAR itself when the premise is: how can we cancel this goal?