I may well be biased, and I may well be wrong, but watching West Ham get robbed by VAR felt like something had just died inside football.
I understand there will be completely opposing views. Arsenal fans will no doubt feel everything is working exactly as it should. From their perspective, it’s all perfectly fine.
But sitting there watching the game with my daughter, when Callum Wilson scored what we thought was the equaliser, we jumped up, punched the air, hugged — that moment of pure release where you think, just maybe, West Ham are going to survive this.
The Moment VAR Took Away
It’s a strange thing, celebrating a goal. It’s pure, adrenaline-filled joy. One of the biggest reasons football stands above almost any other sport.
I love boxing, cricket and Formula One, but nothing compares to seeing your team score.
And irrespective of whether Pablo technically fouled David Raya, I’m certain of one thing — taking that moment away from supporters cannot be good for football.
Call it bitterness if you like. I don’t really care. This is a West Ham website. It’s written by West Ham fans. We’re not pretending to be neutral.
“Clear And Obvious” No Longer Exists
Having watched Arsenal closely, particularly how physical they are at set-pieces, it’s hard not to feel the contact on Raya was minimal.
Go back through the game and you’ll see far stronger challenges go unpunished. Konstantinos Mavropanos was on the receiving end of far more physical treatment moments earlier.
VAR was brought in to correct clear and obvious errors.
That didn’t feel clear. And it certainly didn’t feel obvious.
Something More Important Was Lost
But beyond the technicalities, there was something far bigger at play.
With millions watching, 65,000 inside the London Stadium, and everything riding on that moment, the decision to disallow that goal felt profound.
Because I’m struggling to think of another public event where joy is taken away quite so brutally.
That instant. That release. Gone.
Falling Out Of Love With The Game
You hear more and more people say they’re falling out of love with football.
And watching something like that, it’s not hard to understand why.
Because when the game starts stripping away the very moments that make it special, you have to ask what’s actually being protected anymore
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65,000 singing that should sufficiently embarrass the premier league…. Their dirty washing needs to be aired I’m afraid
Its the inconsistency of VAR that is frustrating, and the time taken. That was never a foul on the keeper, you can’t do anything in the box anymore. We had 2 penalty shouts last week which if it was Arsenal they would’ve been given. It’s obvious the bigger clubs get the big decisions, fed up with it.
Var should be given a time limit , if it takes over 2 minutes to make a decision, then its clearly not clear and obvious! Var should be allowed 30 seconds , because if its clear and obvious it shouldnt even take 10 seconds ! Var is ruining the game its that simple
I totally agree
Very well said Gonzo ….
I never celebrate a goal anymore …..because you can’t !
At least we get that back in the championship eh
You’ve summed it up nicely. If we go down I’ll have another season, but if we get promoted at the end of that I’m done. No more VAR, no more sh1t start times for TV interests. I’ve felt taht way about VAR for a long time, it’s bad enough having one man in the middle screwing it up without a video assistant adding to it. I don’t know if I’m more gutted that the debacle may relegate us, or that all the Part time Percy’s who left when Arsenal scored, missed the equalising goal.
If you keep looking you will eventually find some reason to disallow a goal – we all go to be entertained and that’s been eroded by var – Arsenal and their manager is everything that is wrong with modern day football
Bang on Gonzo, exactly what I’ve been saying for ages. VAR is killing the explosive spontaneity of goal celebrations and slowly killing the game as a spectator sport. Still at least WE won’t have it next season!
I don’t want them in the championship..but perhaps..without Var….the joy still exists in those leagues when a goal like that happens.
The Big Match Revisited has much better games from 1971 at the moment.
Darkest moment in West Ham 3 : Derby 3 was the two young girls running on to the bumpy, muddy field at Upton Park to surprise Harry Redknapp with a kiss and then getting chased back into the crowd by policemen.
Times have changed but maybe we have not advanced with the beautiful game.
Bring back the policemen.
If VAR continues you will have situations in future years where when a team scores silence ensues until VAR decides to adjudicate one way or the other. You are right, the pure joy of scoring has gone and as I have said on here before, in times gone by we had the luxury of blaming the ref for a defeat. I wonder how many Arsenal goals would have been chalked off this season had this strict interpretation of the laws had been applied ?
Brilliant article Gonzo. The game is gone as we know it and the people in the ivory towers care not. I can honestly say that if I was a youngster now my love of football would never have got off the ground seeing what we see now.
I think over 4 minutes to decide to rule the goal out,. At least in the championship,what has quickly become the curse of football, VAR will be no more.
Whatever else happens the FA have to sort out corners. Allowing defensive rugby challenges in any phase of the play at corners is not football and has to be a yellow card and penalty. Yellow card and free kick for attackers. The FA literally have to stop the farce.
Ignoring these offences then disallowing a goal for a later pretty tame arm across the keeper because it’s the easy decision again is not how football should be played.
Again its consistency, how many times would this be given it’s not hard to make it every time if that’s the rule, currently it isn’t.
Maybe if VAR continues maybe AI could take the remaining human error out of it because it can instantly compare similar incidents and get some kind of consistency. What we have now doesn’t work.
A corner now is just like a ruck in Rugby Union where there are so many offences that the one that gets picked is a lucky dip. Hence huge fan frustration.
Good main picture.
Shows Todibo being bear hugged, Rice fouling Mavro but omits Soucek foul.
All this happing before it got to the goal keeper incident.
Should have been a penalty to whu.
Why was Arteta continually tapping his arm to indicate hand ball?
No Arsenal players made a call for a foul being reliant on VAR to come to their rescue.l
While I agree that VAR is often implemented badly and other issues in and around football are harming the game we love, two separate and clear fouls on a goalkeeper who is in the action of catching the ball has always and should always be a definite foul.
If the officials miss it, VAR is there to show them that a clear foul (or two clear fouls, in this case) occurred.
I know what it’s like to battle against relegation so I understand your desperation, frustration and bias here, but it would have been worse to allow a goal which was engineered by clear rule-breaking.
Good luck for the remaining games. I hope you stay up.
Agree with your sentiment, but only blinkered fans can say that wasn’t a foul on the keeper, especially these days
I think we deserved a point, but sadly think VaR was correct
Terrible decision….seen much worse go unpunished.
That VAR moment sums up why next season will be a whole lot more enjoyable in the championship.. honest football back again.. no more teams like villa resting half a team beacause of europe.. no more VAR. And no more biased sky pundits and dubious officials.
And hopefully no more low block stuff…
Todibo is being held Gonzo that’s a penalty our greek is being held that’s a penalty WEVE BEEN CHEATED GONZO LETS NOT MINCE OUR WORDS VAR FAVOURS THE TOP 6 disgusted
Whichever way VAR goes I agree it is destroying a vital aspect the game. The goal celebration is a key component with a release of emotions that can’t be bettered. The only consolation of being relegated is we leave VAR behind!!
Their was so much wrong before the Rayna foul on 3 of our players, players were pulled to the floor all over the penalty area, total carnage but not one of these looked at by var, totally biased in my opinion.
Good luck to Arsenal,who won that by a very biased decision today.You won this year due to other teams and the whole of the premier being the worst for years. So enjoy because it will never be this easy again
Look at the Arsenal players arms around Tordibo that a penalty surely
After last wkend with Soucek being rugby tackled to the ground and nothing given, then watching this.The screen shot of the goalkeepers two hands going for the ball, then look at Todibo and mavropanos what a joke VAR has become, football has finished for me
100% agree Gonzo. VAR is killing the joy of football one review at a time.