West Ham United star Michail Antonio calls for VAR to be ‘binned’ after new controversy
West Ham star Michail Antonio has called for VAR to be “binned” after the controversy surrounding the decision to disallow Luis Diaz’s goal for Liverpool against Tottenham on Saturday 30 September.
The controversial call has since led to an apology from the PGMOL, admitting the decision was wrong, and a media frenzy amid calls from Jurgen Klopp to replay the fixture [BBC, 4 October].
Anontio weighed in on the discussion, saying VAR was brought in to prevent human error, but has failed and should be scrapped in an acceptance that errors are just a part of football.
Antonio was joined by Newcastle striker Callum Wilson on their BBC The Footballer’s Football Podcast, where the West Ham man stated: “VAR should be binned. VAR got brought in because of the debates that were going on after every single game. There were too many human errors that were happening.
“Now we’ve got the technology and there are still human errors. It’s got to the stage where you need to have started accepting that human errors are part of football, and it made football better.”
Wilson agreed, stating: “I personally don’t really like it anyway, I’ve said that from the start, so it’s one of those things. Are they going to change it? Probably not, it’s one error in however many games.
“For me, it’s a hold your hands up, say sorry, somebody is obviously going to maybe get a slap on the wrist and then we just carry on as normal next week, it’ll be forgotten about.”
More controversy than it’s worth
It feels like there is not a single weekend of Premier League football that goes by without something going wrong with VAR. Whether it’s a controversial penalty or handball decision, a tight offside, or even a decision not to check an incident, there always seems to be a talking point.
It has taken a big call in a big game for people to finally discuss the shortfalls of VAR at length, with plenty of controversy and differing opinions on the outcome of the complaints made by Liverpool, but calls are now emerging to get rid of the technology altogether.
As Antonio says, human error has always been a part of football. The difference is, when a referee has to make a split-second decision about a tight call, you can give a bit of leeway if he gets it wrong. If they have the benefit of slow-motion replays and still get it wrong, questions have to be asked about competency.
In other West Ham news, one Hammers ace is set for a new contract extension.