Antonio wants VAR binned
By Hughie Southon
Michail Antonio has made it clear that he believes VAR needs to be binned!
Claretandhugh‘s Dave Langton argued the same point several days ago and now finds himself in exalted company with Mikey who has described our disallowed goal against Chelsea as “madness.”
There really can’t be many people out there who believe that the new technology has served its initial purpose of improving the game, notably after a weekend when the world and his wife slammed decisions at the London Stadium and St James’ Park.
Referees’ body PGMOL effectively accepted that decision – and a second VAR call at Newcastle United v Crystal Palace – was wrong.
And the Hammers number nine remains incensed that the Hammers were denied a point although clearly, his feelings go deeper than that on video assistant referees.
Speaking on the latest episode of the Footballer’s Football Podcast on BBC Sounds, he added: “I have said this many times. It needs to be binned.”
And on the decision against us at Stamford Bridge he added: “It was a madness, that’s what I am going to call it. An actual madness.”
The PGMOL said it will fully co-operate with a Premier League review of last weekend’s incidents.
The system is in its fourth full Premier League season after it was introduced in 2019. The Premier League claimed the percentage of correct “key match decisions” rose from 82% without it to 94% in that first season.
The purpose is for the VAR to flag “clear and obvious errors” or “serious missed incidents” to advise the on-field referee.
It is only used for goals, penalty decisions, straight red cards or mistaken identity – and there is a “high bar” for intervention “to maintain the pace and intensity of matches”.
“As a player we all knew it [the incident] was nothing,” said Antonio.
“It is all about opinions – about the referee’s opinion, about the fourth official’s opinion and about the opinion of whoever is watching,” added Antonio.
“If the referee makes a decision, then there is another person who goes ‘that might not be the right decision’. He goes to the referee ‘you might have to have another look at that’.
“He is putting doubt in the referee’s mind when he is already sure about the decision he has made.
“He goes over and watches [on the monitor] but because someone has already said to him you might have got that wrong – it has clouded his mind already.
“The person who is meant to make a decision, who is quite sure of his decision, believes his decision is right, has now got that doubt and feels he needs to change – or if he doesn’t change [wonders] if he is going to get into trouble because another referee has told him to change.
“It is taking the passion away from football because you don’t know if you have scored or not – it is pointless.
“You are spending all this money on VAR for things to still go wrong.”