Following Saturday’s evening’s Newcastle vs Arsenal game, PGMOL have decided to get an independent review undertaken on the VAR decisions.
They reached out to my 12 year old daughter, who is a Game Leader (Junior Referee) for Balmain District Football Club, in Sydney.
Below is her exclusive assessment of the Newcastle goal(?)
Checking Goal – Possible Ball Out Of Play
From the available view (How can VAR only have one view?) the ball appears to be over the line.
Therefore, based on the data available, this should have been given as an out of play.
Checking Goal – Possible Foul
Two hands on the back of the defender and the attacker appears to push him out of the way to gain an advantage to get to the ball.
Therefore, based on the data available, this should have been given as a foul.
Checking Goal – Possible Offside
The law states that a player is in an offside position if any of their body parts, except the hands and arms, are in the opponents’ half of the pitch and closer to the opponents’ goal line than both the ball and the second-last opponent. Without drawing lines, there is only one defending player between the attacker receiving the ball and the goal.
Therefore, based on the data available, this should have been given as offside.
Well, in my ‘professional’ opinion, these are the decisions, I would have given and my assessors would have expected me to give, if this had taken place in a junior game I was refereeing.
English by birth, Australian by choice. Traffic Engineer, Arsenal ST Holder, Sun DreamTeam Winner, Writer on @GunnersTown, Depeche Mode, Welcome to my world…
You have a reasonable assesment!! No wonder Arteta became furious.
VAR etc works well in other sports but NOT in football – the only exception !! The Technology is there and is viewed by millions. The problem is the ‘Powers that Be’ and their use of it. Why is everything done to protect Referees’ ultimate decisions ? Because that’s the way it has always been and ‘ Powers that Be’ do not like change. On pitch Officials are Tried every week by technology seen by viewers who enrage at the crass mistakes made. It is actually very unfair on Referees.
Who are those viewing 7 screens in the VAR studio ? Budding aficionados ? Or veteran ex players (not Messi nor Ronaldo) who know the game far, far better ? And what instructions are they given ? >>> If in doubt support the hopelessly disadvantaged Referee ….
Solution >>> Deskill refereeing. Make referees and assistants on field Administrators with power in the hands of technology. Ensure that on field decisions are simply corrected by those viewing the technology (including red & yellow cards etc.) Terribly unfair on poor old referees ? They should be grateful not to be made fools of – over and over again.
And what about the thousands, paying to be there, and the millions at home – seething with rage ? Without them there would not be any wildly overpaid football. Very few care about referees’ feelings nor the ‘ Powers that Be.’ They just want correct decisions – which technology can provide!
The F.A. and the League and Howard Webb would be horrified.
Totally agree, VAR is there to get the RIGHT decision, not protect referee egos. If the ref got the decision wrong, he got it wrong, we just want VAR to get the decision right
According to the letter of the law (FA law 11) a player is in an office position if any goal scoring part of their body is behind the second last opponent. In this case, the second last opponent is David Raya. Both Joelinton and Gordon are in a offside position. As soon as the ball touches Joelinton to go to Gordon its an offside offence.