Video Assistant Referee causes controversy every week in the Premier League, but how are decisions made, and are they correct?
After each weekend we take a look at the major incidents, to examine and explain the process both in terms of VAR protocol and the Laws of the Game.
In this week’s VAR Review: We take a look at how impact is judged in different situations, from Crystal Palace‘s penalty claim against Liverpool, to Newcastle United‘s spot kick against Everton — not to mention two offside decisions which resulting in opposite outcomes.
Possible penalty: Holding by Van Dijk on Guéhi
What happened: Crystal Palace won a corner in the 71st minute. A cross was played to the back post towards Trevoh Chalobah, who saw his improvised flick on goal palmed clear by Alisson. As the players started to move back up the pitch, Palace’s Marc Guéhi appealed for a penalty to referee Simon Hooper, who waved him away. It was unclear at first what Guéhi was complaining about, but he wanted Virgil van Dijk penalised for holding in the box, and it was checked by the VAR, David Coote.
VAR decision: No penalty.
VAR review: The Premier League’s Guidance document has a third clause for judging a holding offence, and you’d struggle to find a more obvious example of a “clear (extreme) non-footballing action with impact on the opponent’s movement.”
The clause comes into play when there’s no justification for what Tarkowski did. By grabbing Tonali around the collar and literally throwing him to the ground, Tarkowski was so far from a footballing action it would have been impossible for the VAR to ignore it. It was more a wrestling move.
It’s precisely the type of challenge where an attacking player’s ability to go for the ball is usurped by the sheer craziness of a defender’s actions.
In throwing Tonali to the turf, Tarkowski’s situation can’t be compared with Van Dijk simply holding onto the arm of Guéhi.
VAR review: This caused a lot of frustration among Everton fans, and manager Sean Dyche, who believe the club are getting the thin end of the wedge when it comes to penalties.
At first it did look like Burn had prevented Calvert-Lewin from getting a shot on goal, but all was not what it seemed — though there are opposing views.
Had Burn made an obvious movement to put himself in the way of Calvert-Lewin to prevent the shot, Everton would have had a much stronger case. But the Newcastle player doesn’t try to place himself in front of the striker, and he’s kicked by Calvert-Lewin in the act of taking the shot.
VAR review: It took two minutes and 40 seconds for the VAR to clear the goal … far too long — especially as most of that time appeared to be spent working on the possible offside against the goal scorer.
In the end, Martinelli was clearly onside. It’s exactly the kind of situation that semi-automated offside (SAOT) is supposed to help with, when the VAR has to work with multiple angles to try to determine the body position of a player. However, after SAOT was supposed to be introduced in October or November, it now seems more likely it will come in the second half of the season — if it even comes in this campaign at all.
A source has told ESPN that tests of the new technology by Genius Sports, which won the contract with the Premier League for SAOT, are not going as well as expected and it won’t be introduced into English football until there’s no risk of errors. Though you have to ask what’s different about the technology in Spain and Italy, which both already have SAOT implemented.
VAR review: Remarkably, Wolverhampton Wanderers have given away penalties in consecutive gameweeks for pretty much the same offence. Last week, Nélson Semedo had his arm around the neck of Liverpool‘s Diogo Jota and referee Anthony Taylor pointed to the spot.
This weekend, it was Lemina’s turn.
As a corner came across, the ball dropped directly into the area Collins was attacking — remember impacting “the opponent’s movement and/ or the ability to play or challenge” — but Lemina had his arm on Collins’ neck and shoulder and, as a result, he was free to head the ball away.
This time it needed the VAR to get involved to give the spot kick, but it was Groundhog Day for Gary O’Neil.
Possible penalty: Handball by Zabarnyi
What happened: The game was in the 23rd minute when Stephy Mavididi tried to play a pass to Jamie Vardy, who was at the far post, and the ball hit the arm of Bournemouth defender Illia Zabarnyi. Leicester City players demanded a penalty, but referee Darren Bond played on. It was checked by the VAR, Stuart Attwell.
VAR decision: No penalty.
VAR review: Here’s a fact for you: There hasn’t been a single penalty for handball in the Premier League this season. Let’s compare that to the other top European competitions: Serie A has seen six in 70 matches (frequency, 0.085); LaLiga eight in 90 (0.088); the Bundesliga six in 54 (0.111); and out in front is Ligue 1 with seven in 54 (0.129). That’s dwarfed by the UEFA Champions League, which has seen seven in 36 matches at 0.194 per game — meaning UEFA’s interpretation has more than double the number of handball penalties than Spain and Italy.
But the Premier League is certainly out on its own with its relaxed interpretation for handball, placing more emphasis on a player’s natural movement. It’s going to take a really, really obvious offence for the VAR to get involved. Some will probably feel Zabarnyi should fall into that category, and it’s a fair argument.
Zabarnyi’s arm was out from his body, and in one of the other European competitions it would be pretty certain to result in a spot kick. The Premier League, however, wants to get this law closer to how it was before the IFAB began tweaking it six years ago.
Zabarnyi is running and the movement of his arms stay consistent before Mavididi attempts the cross. That said, if the referee had given the spot kick it would have been overturned.
“Referee’s call” is going to be more of a focus on handball offences that anything else.
Some factual parts of this article include information provided by the Premier League and PGMOL.
