Just because it would have been a great fairytale, we cannot suddenly ditch VAR.
Sorry to be a killjoy, but the offside decision to disallow what would have been Victor Torp’s extra time winner was the correct one.
The keyboard warriors on Twitter posting pictures of conspiracy theories as to why the technology got it wrong have got it wrong themselves.
There is a picture floating around of the blue line going over Manchester United defender Aaron Wan-Bissaka’s foot is deceiving because the key line is red and that shows that Haji Wright is offside in the build-up.
There has been no technology failure. No error. Just people blowing up blurry pictures which give a false impression. The goal was correctly ruled out for offside.
Next season we’ll have better and quicker decision making through semi-automated offsides. But we can’t suddenly question how many frames per second, margins or the science of VAR just because we want Coventry to win. People have lost the plot.
It has been a bruising weekend for the PGMOL and referees on the back of Nottingham Forest’s club statement after their defeat at Everton.
And what an embarrassing one for former referee Mark Clattenburg who has sold his soul to stick the knife into his former colleagues after taking up a role as a referee consultant at Forest.
The actual premise of his role at Forest is a sound one. Offer advice, tell them where they’re going wrong, correct some bad behaviour.
But to pile in, effectively back up that statement and back Forest is just an embarrassment. For what it’s worth, according to well placed sources, Forest did not ask for Stuart Attwell to be taken off VAR duties.
The suggestion - and it is a clear implication - that Attwell did not give a decision because he is a Luton fan is downright pathetic.
You are questioning Attwell’s integrity and that is unforgivable and reprehensible. Did he make a mistake? I think he did on the third penalty appeal.
Attwell should have alerted referee Anthony Taylor and Forest should have had a penalty for Ashley Young’s challenge on Callum Hudson-Odoi.
But did he do it out of spite? Or bias? Absolutely not. Even if he is a Luton fan, Luton probably wanted a draw.
But no ref thinks like that. Some are not given games for teams they support or where they come from.
It is, however, a growing trend in football among managers and their coaching staff to look at VARs and refs and think: “They’re against us.”
One club is convinced that a particular VAR has got an agenda. I know another had the hump they realised that one referee is a Scouser. He was taking charge of two London teams and the notion that he would have it in for one of them to help Liverpool…. It’s laughable. But that’s how they think.
And part of that crazy thinking explains the madness is club statements. Forest should be embarrassed.
But Liverpool started it and I have more sympathy with them than most because they were genuinely wronged after the offside call at Tottenham.
Then Arsenal did the same after losing at Newcastle. And it’s gone from there… It’s wrong. Give referees and VAR a chance. This is getting childish, silly and it needs to stop.
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