Journalist blasts officials after controversial decision during West Ham United draw v Leeds United
Journalist Toby Cudworth was furious with the officials during West Ham United’s draw with Leeds after Crysencio Summerville wasn’t shown a red card.
The Hammers snapped a five-game losing streak to claim a 2-2 draw against the Whites at Elland Road, but they were furious when Coufal was clattered on the touchline by a high tackle.
But after a VAR review led to no further action because they couldn’t decipher where contact was made due to a lack of camera angles available, the 90min journalist and West Ham fan was furious.
“If VAR wasn’t sure where Summerville caught Coufal, why didn’t they just look at the state of his shin? Another rotten decision,” he wrote on his personal Twitter account (4 January).
Awful
It was a really bad call, and the stud marks down Coufal’s shin made it abundantly clear and obvious that it should have been a foul.
Obviously without conclusive video evidence VAR wouldn’t be able to give anything, and that is understandable, but all the evidence they needed was right in front of them.
Common sense would have seen the right decision made, and West Ham would have been in a terrific position to claim a win that they’re absolutely desperate for in their relegation battle.
Those are the types of decisions that could make a huge difference in the battle against the drop, and the longer they continue to go against us the longer we can expect our luck to be poor.
Ultimately a draw was probably a fair result on the balance of play, but it would have changed so much if the officials just did their job and made the right decisions initially.