Former Premier League referee Keith Hackett has called for changes in the offside law and claims the way VAR is being operated is “making a mockery of the game”.
Hackett was left bemused by Patrick Bamford’s disallowed goal in Leeds United’s 4-1 defeat to Crystal Palace on Saturday.
The 27-year-old striker appeared comfortably onside before he raised his arm to tell Mateusz Klich where to play the ball and he ran on to score, seemingly equalising for his side.
However, after a video assistant referee (VAR) review at Stockley Park, the goal was ruled out – prompting a furious reaction from many fans and pundits, despite the decision being technically correct within the new guidelines.
Hackett, the former Professional Game Match Officials Limited chief, told i: “Like handball, which I think is a very poorly-written law, offside also needs a rewrite.
“If there is any doubt on VAR calls on an offside decision, it favours the defender.
“I believe, very passionately, that the benefit of doubt should go to the forward and that’s part of my judgment of why Bamford’s goal should have been allowed.
“We are seeing too many of these technical decisions, I would call them, which quite frankly are making a mockery of the game.
“The standard of refereeing is falling and the quality of decision-making is poor.
“In my time we generally we probably got one key major incident wrong during a round of Premier League fixtures but now we’re getting two or three per game.”
Hackett does not believes VAR should be scrapped but says improvements to the way it is administered are sorely needed.
He added: “For a referee to make a decision, he has to go through a process and that is to see, recognise, think and act.
“If he doesn’t see, then he’s going to make an inaccurate call, so VAR should put some balance back in the decision-making process – but the way it is being operated is flawed.
“Therefore I think there should be a panel of former referees at Stockley Park who operate a system identically to how it works in rugby union.
“There the whole interrogation of an incident is totally transparent as fans are able to see and listen on the big screen to what is being said and how the referee comes to the decision, whatever that decision is.
“Right now in football, VAR is not working because of the shortfall in the people who are operating it.”
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from Football – inews.co.uk https://ift.tt/36e1IG8
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