Former Premier League referee Dermot Gallgher has said that VAR was right to disallow Serge Aurier’s goal for Tottenham against Leicester on Saturday.
Leicester ended up winning the game 2-1 after Tottenham took the lead through Harry Kane in the first half.
The Aurier goal might well have sealed the points for Spurs, with the score still at 1-0 in the 64th minute.
However, the goal was ruled out after Heung-min Son was ruled marginally offside.
Talking on Ref Watch (Sky Sports, Monday, 11.30am), Gallagher was asked for his verdict.
“This is a really tough one isn’t it, for anyone,” Gallagher said. “This is one only VAR could give, no human could see this without doubt.”
Gallagher was asked if VAR can be that accurate and that precise and he replied saying, “You can be confident that when the teams signed up they knew what it was. Before it was signed off those sorts of pictures were shown and that they would be given as offside. That’s where we are.
“I’m not a technician., I just know that’s what was given, that’s the technology, the Premier League was happy with it, the teams were happy with it.”
When the Sky host said, “Can you hear that? That’s the sound of Tottenham fans shouting at their TV screens,” Gallagher replied saying, “Well, it was also tight in the Champions League semi-final when VAR went in their direction.”
VAR: Right is right
We weren’t expecting Gallagher to say anything different here.
If a player is offside, then he’s offside, no-matter how small the margin. You can see from the picture from the BT coverage of the game below how tight the decision was.
But Son was offside, albeit by the smallest of distances.
That’s what the technology is there for – a player is either onside or offside.
However, not everyone agrees. Talking on Match of the Day (BBC1, Saturday, 10.30pm), pundit Alan Shearer said that VAR is weighting things too far towards the defender.
As quoted by Football London he said, “I was willing to give it a chance, but when you’re taking almost three minutes to get to that decision and we know the technology is not 100% accurate because the frame can’t tell us when the ball is leaving the foot and you’re talking about a millimetre or two.
“That and the handball law I’m not comfortable with after the first six weeks of the season, because everything is weighted in favour of the defender!”
He went on to ask whether the clear an obvious error rule should be extended to offside decisions but surely that would just lead to more delays and more confusion?
With something as objective as offside, we believe right is right. The goal shouldn’t have stood.
Tottenham manager Mauricio Pochettino told the BBC he had “no complaints” with the decision after the game and that’s the right response.