The English Premier League has defended the VAR (Video Assistant Referee) for the decision to ignore a possible penalty opportunity against Manchester City in the final minutes of the game against Liverpool this month.
The VAR incident happened in the 98th minute of the Premier League derby which could possibly decide on the race for the title race. There was contact from Jeremy Doku‘s hasty high boot move which caught Alexis Mac Allister in the penalty area. The Liverpool fans believed it was a clear opportunity for their side to potentially claim the title this season. The manager of the side Jurgen Klopp described the incident “100% a foul” after the game.
However Chief Referee Howard Webb disagreed and insisted match referee Michael Oliver and the VAR made the right decision.
Speaking on Match Officials Mic’d Up this weekend, Webb stated:
” If the referee gives it on a field, it would have been a check complete by the VAR. Alivernd equally, having not given it, it’s also check complete. You hear Michael Oliver say the ball is in between two players going together. The ball is too low to head. Doku lifts his foot to play the ball and he does make contact on the ball”
“And yes we know there’s some contact on Mac Allister as well. Mac Allister comes into him, Mac Allister is not really playing the ball either so I understand why it’s split opinion.
I think it would have been checked complete either way not wanting to re-referee with the gaming situations that are not really clear which is what we think the VAR is for this situation. The VAR stays out of it. I think that is what we would expect.
He further explained;
” You want to know with clarity, with certainty that you’re making the right decision. You know, you don’t always have sufficient information in the moment to make that decision.
” Clearly, Michael didn’t have it in this situation. And then the VAR looks at it and doesn’t see a clear and obvious situation. You see something that’s pretty subjective and therefore stays out of it. And the feedback we’ve had from people within the game is that this is a pretty subjective situation, it’s a split opinion.
“So on that basis, the VAR, you know, working to that high threshold kind of followed the kind of the right course in not getting involved”, he finally added.
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