Same Day, Different Rules – VAR’s Inconsistency Exposed | OneFootball

VAR has been around in football for a number of years now, and each year it seems to cause more confusion. Even though it has its benefits, the calls are becoming more inconsistent every week, sometimes even on the same day.

Take last Tuesday, for example, during the UEFA Champions League early kick-off between Slavia Prague and Arsenal. Gabriel headed the ball onto the arm of Lukas Provod from close range, prompting the referee to check the monitor. The bizarre part was that none of the Arsenal players appealed for a penalty; they were more focused on the referee awarding a corner.

Yet, referee Aliyar Aghayev overturned the original decision and gave a penalty to The Gunners. UEFA’s threshold for penalties is much lower than in the Premier League, which only adds to the confusion. But what happened just a few hours later in the Liverpool vs. Real Madrid game in the same competition really sums up the inconsistency with how the technology is used.

Dominik Szoboszlai’s shot struck the arm of Aurelien Tchouameni near the edge of the box, which saw the referee award Liverpool a free-kick. The referee was then called over to the pitchside monitor for a potential penalty to The Reds; however, when he returned to the field, he decided there was no handball committed by the Frenchman. Some have joikingly suggested that those operating the video technology need to check out the latest sports glasses. Anyone with eyes could clearly see that it hit his hand and would have forced Thibaut Courtois into making a save; if anything, it was more of a penalty than what was given in the Czech Republic hours earlier.

On Sunday afternoon, in the Premier League clash between Brentford and Newcastle United, Brentford’s Dango Ouattara went down in the box following a challenge from Dan Burn. Referee Stuart Attwell initially booked Ouattara for simulation, sparking confusion. Moments later, he was summoned to the VAR monitor to review the incident, as it appeared Burn had made contact, potentially bringing Ouattara down inside the area. Yet, despite the footage seemingly showing a clear foul, the original decision stood, and Ouattara’s yellow card remained, leaving Brentford fans fuming.

What made matters worse was the implication: had the foul been given, Burn, already on a yellow, might well have seen red. But instead, Attwell stuck to his guns and awarded Newcastle a free kick, much to the disbelief and outrage of the Brentford faithful.

Then, in the 16:30 match between Manchester City and Liverpool, Jérémy Doku burst into the box after some slick play and was clipped ever so slightly by Giorgi Mamardashvili in goal for Liverpool. The contact was fairly similar to the one in the Brentford v Newcastle game, if not lighter. Yet, the referee was sent over to the VAR screen, had a look, came back onto the pitch and pointed to the spot, awarding a penalty. There were once again calls for the officials to ckeck out online glasses, as it was baffling to see, especially considering what had just happened in the other match moments earlier, showing just how inconsistent VAR is right now.

Then moments later there was more… Liverpool thought they had a leveller, when Virgil van Dijk headed the ball into the back of the net, but a VAR intervention saw the goal ruled out as Andrew Robertson was allegedly blocking the view of Manchester City’s goalkeeper Gianluigi Donnarumma. But the replay showed Donnarumma had a full view of the ball the whole time and was not obstructed by Robertson, who made a clear intention that he wasn’t playing the ball.

However, for all the negatives around VAR over the past week, in a WSL game between Arsenal and Chelsea, Stina Blackstenius thought she had scored for Arsenal, but the goal was ruled out for handball, even though replays suggested the ball hit her midriff and not her hand, leaving everyone in disbelief, and then shortly after another Arsenal goal was chalked off for a marginal offside, which led to questions as to why isn’t VAR in the WSL.