Keith Hackett amazed Bournemouth man didn’t see red v West Ham United
West Ham United may have won comfortably at home to Bournemouth but the game did not pass by without more VAR controversy.
Cherries midfielder Jefferson Lerma flung himself into a reckless tackle on Hammers striker Gianluca Scamacca early on in the second half which many thought was a guaranteed red card.
But despite a VAR check, the Bournemouth man was only shown a yellow card and was able to remain on the pitch for the rest of the game.
Former FIFA official Keith Hackett was sent a screenshot of the horror tackle on Twitter and could not believe that it was not given as a red card on the field, let alone after VAR had a look.
“I agree, this is a red card every day,” Hackett said while handball was another controversial topic with incidents at both ends of the pitch causing debate.
Blatant
It’s at a time like this you can’t help but ask what on earth VAR is doing because there can be no more obvious red card than Lerma’s tackle on Scamacca.
Sometimes you can excuse the referee who may have been obstructed in his view of the challenge or not have the ideal angle to realise the severity of it but that is why VAR is in operation.
It is there solely to ensure mistakes of this magnitude are rectified there and then and not retrospectively days after the final whistle has been blown.
Luckily for West Ham, on this occasion, they were already ahead and on their way to victory against Bournemouth so the red card wouldn’t have made much of a difference in the grand scheme of things.
But that is not an excuse the FA and Premier League can use because they should be implementing the letter of the law regardless of the game or situation at hand.