Richard Keys rages at West Ham and Wolves incidents, ex-PGMOL chief agrees
Richard Keys couldn’t believe what he was seeing in West Ham’s draw with Bournemouth and Wolves’ win away at relegation-threatened Ipswich.
Evanilson scored twice to rescue the Cherries a point against the Hammers, who thought they were on course for a win after goals by Jarrod Bowen and Niclas Fullkrug at the London Stadium.
In Suffolk, Liam Delap’s first-half goal for Ipswich was cancelled out by Pablo Sarabia before Jorgen Strand Larsen netted an 84th-minute winner for Vitor Pereira’s side.
Both matches endured lengthy stoppages due to VAR checks on goals, leading to anger from former Sky Sports anchor Keys.
West Ham draw v Bournemouth halted by VAR
VAR took it’s time to check Evanilson’s first goal against West Ham on Saturday after already taking an age at Portman Road to see if Delap’s goal against Wolves was legal.
Keys couldn’t hide his bemusement on social media, saying that the VAR checks for both first-half goals totalled over five minutes.
“Why? Two minutes and 38 seconds. Why? “They are killing the game. This is both clearly and obviously onside,” said Keys on X after VAR took it’s time checking whether Delap’s goal against Wolves should have stood.
| Played | GD | Points | |
| 15. West Ham | 31 | -17 | 35 |
| 16. Tottenham | 30 | +11 | 34 |
| 17. Wolves | 31 | -16 | 32 |
| 18. Ipswich | 31 | -34 | 20 |
Around half an hour later, when Evanilson scored against West Ham, Keys bemoaned how long it took VAR to check whether that was offside or not.
“And again…. Two minutes and 36 seconds this time. Clearly and obviously onside.”
Keith Hackett reacts to Keys criticism of Bournemouth and Ipswich goal checks
Former PGMOL general manager Keith Hackett agreed with Keys’ criticism of the lengthy VAR checks for such straightforward decisions.
“Richard Keys is spot on with his judgment. I agree with him,” Hackett told West Ham Zone.
The Premier League will introduce semi-automated offside technology next weekend after it was previously tested in the FA Cup.
It might mean that these decisions in the West Ham draw with Bournemouth and the Wolves win over Ipswich are the final times where we see offsides take so long to be checked at Stockley Park.
SAOT uses high-speed cameras and artificial intelligence to aid VAR officials in deciding whether a player is offside or not when an incident happens on the pitch.
It’s been in the pipeline all season but for whatever reason, it’s still yet to be put in place properly at the elite level of English league football.