VAR | Vital Football

VAR

keith margam

Vital Football Legend
Well done former PL referee Mark Clattenburg for speaking out about the controversial Man City goals.
“The FA’s decision not to get the Liberty Stadium ready for VAR probably cost Swansea a place in the FA Cup semi-finals,
Manchester City’s second and third goals should not have stood. For the second, a penalty awarded for a foul on Raheem Sterling, the defender clearly got a touch on the ball. Then Sergio Aguero was offside for his winning goal. VAR should not have been needed to get those decisions right.
Andre Marriner should have seen Sterling was not fouled, and for the offside, the assistant referee should have been in line with the second-last defender. The integrity of the FA Cup has been damaged by the use of VAR in Premier League stadiums only.”
Nice to hear an honest professional view on the incidents, and confirming most Swans fans view that
“ we woz robbed!”
 
Good stuff from Clattenburg and good to see him speak out about it and say it as it is. The decisions going against us is nothing new but the VAR situation just adds to the frustration especially when you realise that we were the first club to use it in the Premier League.
 
Throughout our PL tenure we’ve seen the big team bias from referees.
Saturdays game was a reminder again of that.
Another annoying fact is that the Liberty was one of the pioneer grounds to trial VAR, as it was used in 2017 in an U23’s cup match.
Not mentioned either was just a few minutes before Man City’s first goal, James was pushed in the box, through on goal, penalty not given, VAR would have picked that up.
 
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Even Adrian Durham of TalkSport is on our side. He is suggesting that Man City do the decent thing and replay the match.
His fellow presenter Darren Gough said: “What I would do if I were Swansea is put a complaint in with the FA because Swansea have all the facilities to use VAR at the Liberty.”
Durham also said “This is an extraordinary set of circumstances and the whole thing you have just talked about there, this whole VAR thing, is totally unfair. It’s totally unworkable and has cost Swansea what would have been an amazing extra-time and potential shock in the FA Cup.”
 
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The FA have admitted that the Liberty Stadium, and most other Championship grounds, are perfectly capable of accommodating VAR, and they haven't ruled out making a change for next season.
League One Burton Albion used VAR when they played Manchester City at the Pirelli Stadium in the semi-finals of the League Cup earlier in the season.