The body responsible for match officials in English football, Professional Game Match Officials Limited, PGMOL, has admitted “significant errors” with VAR offside decisions. One of which went against Arsenal in their 1-1 draw with Brentford. Ivan Toney earned a point for the visitors with an equalizer in the 74th minute.
The VAR in that game, Lee Mason, failed to identify Christian Norgaard, who laid on the goal for Toney, was coming back from an offside position.
It meant the offside lines were not applied and the goal was allowed to stand.
“PGMOL can confirm its Chief Refereeing Officer Howard Webb has contacted both Arsenal and Brighton & Hove Albion to acknowledge and explain the significant errors in the VAR process in their respective Premier League fixtures on Saturday,” a statement issued by PGMOL on Sunday read.
“Both incidents, which were due to human error and related to the analysis of offside situations, are being thoroughly reviewed by PGMOL.”
PGMOL’s new chief refereeing officer, Howard Webb, has promised greater openness and transparency over decision-making.
VAR was introduced to curb errors like this but it seems it is causing more problems and affecting the spontaneity of the game. It is quite unfortunate that Arsenal was denied 3 pts which is very costly especially when you have a team like Mancity bearing down on you. At the end of the season, one point may be the difference between the winner and runner up.