OPINION
Man City fans will be mighty sick of VAR after a late decision robbed them of two points against Tottenham on Saturday.
Pep Guardiola thought Gabriel Jesus had won the game at the Etihad when he slotted the ball home in injury time with the score at 2-2.
Jesus certainly thought he’d won it as he danced in front of the Man City fans.
However, after a VAR decision, the goal was overturned because of an Aymeric Laporte handball.
The replays showed the handball looked accidental, and no Tottenham players appealed, but under rules introduced on June 1, any goal created by a handball, accidental or otherwise, will be disallowed.
Bizarrely, though, if the ball accidentally strikes a defender’s arm, it wouldn’t be a free-kick.
Man Cty player Ilkay Gundogan tweeted what everyone else was thinking when he said: “Any attacker that commits handball, intentional or not, is now ruled a free kick?? And if you’re defending it’s fine?? It only disadvantages the attacking team. In my opinion this rule needs to be changed.”
Today's VAR decision is really hard to take. Any attacker that commits handball, intentional or not, is now ruled a free kick?? And if you’re defending it’s fine?? It only disadvantages the attacking team.
In my opinion this rule needs to be changed. #MCITOT pic.twitter.com/TtPsB96FD0— Ilkay Gündogan (@IlkayGuendogan) August 17, 2019
It makes a mockery of the game when you can have a situation where if one player handballs it’s a free-kick and if another player does it’s not.
Laporte went to head the ball and his arm wasn’t in an unnatural position. He couldn’t have done anything to avoid the ball hitting his arm and he wasn’t looking to get an advantage from it.
This isn’t a criticism of VAR just of this specific rule. But it seems that this is a law that’s been introduced to fit in with the new VAR technology. The game needs VAR but we can’t have every decision micro-managed to the point that there’s no spontaneity left in the game.
It needs changing.