Newcastle United will seek answers from the PGMOL and Premier League this week after being left in a state of fury by a series of a controversial VAR and officiating calls last week.
The club’s co-owner Amanda Staveley said she suffered a “sleepless night” after a VAR call ruled out Tyrick Mitchell’s own goal in their St James’ Park clash with Crystal Palace.
The goal was ruled out after the VAR, Lee Mason, intervened. Mason spotted Joe Willock colliding with goalkeeper Vicente Guaita – but Mitchell was clearly pushing the Newcastle midfielder. The match ended 0-0 and Mason has subsequently been dropped for next weekend’s matches.
Nevertheless, the club are understood to be “very frustrated” at the VAR decision that cost them a win, with Staveley claiming it had been a “consistent theme” of Newcastle’s last few matches.
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The Magpies were also understood to be aggrieved at some of the calls during their defeat at Liverpool, not least the amount of time added on for time wasting. A marginal VAR call also meant an Alexander Isak goal was chalked off, although neither of those decisions were as obviously incorrect as Saturday’s bad call.
Staveley confirmed the club would be talking to the authorities this week. “I had a sleepless night. We should have won,” she told YouTube channel Tyneside Life.
“I hated the VAR decision. Obviously that’s something we’re dealing with and it seems to be a consistent theme of the last few games but we are dealing with that.
“We’re talking to officials and trying to get something that we think will work moving forward.”
i understands clubs can raise issues on refereeing and VAR decisions at the end of every match week and Newcastle are seeking detailed answers about how such a glaring mistake was made in the hope there’s no repeat.
While there is absolutely no chance of either replaying the fixture or changing the result, Newcastle are one of a few clubs who want to see a change in the way VAR is operated.
The PGMOL issued a tacit admission on Sunday that both the Newcastle decision and the call to rule out West Ham forward Maxwel Cornet’s equaliser at Stamford Bridge over the weekend were wrong.
They will co-operate with the Premier League, who have requested a review of the two incidents, and will use the outcome as part of the “ongoing assessment of weekly performances and the development of our match officials going forward”.
Newcastle raised complaints with the Premier League back in December after a series of decisions went against them, prompting Howe to admit there was a sense of “injustice” in his squad and “disbelief”.
Howe revealed the league had written back to him, saying only it was an “interesting read” before declining to expand on their justifications.
Time to overhaul VAR after ‘dark weekend’, says former referees chief
Former referees chief Keith Hackett has called for an immediate overhaul of how VAR is being used in English football after what he branded a “dark weekend” for refereeing.
Controversy dogged the weekend fixtures after VAR intervened in incidents that the PGMOL has now effectively admitted were incorrect.
VAR was also at the centre of contentious calls in the games between Brentford and Leeds, Sunday’s Old Trafford clash between Manchester United and Arsenal, and Nottingham Forest’s defeat against Bournemouth – when Michael Oliver took the rare step of sticking to his guns when VAR summoned him to the monitor to look at a penalty decision.
The PGMOL and Premier League will hold a review this week into the Newcastle and West Ham calls but Hackett has told i that profound change is needed to the way VAR is used in England.
“It was a dark weekend for refereeing, but everyone involved knew it was coming,” he said.
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“Newcastle and West Ham have every right to feel aggrieved. In the case of the Newcastle game, why is the VAR getting involved? And then when they did, why didn’t they see that the Newcastle player is pushed into the goalkeeper by the opponent?
“They are saying we didn’t have the view but the match is being filmed and broadcast all over the world so why shouldn’t they have access to the broadcast feed?
“Eddie Howe gave a very measured reaction to it, but this is a multibillion pound industry we’re talking about.
“What we have seen is that VAR really isn’t working. Ultimately that is down to the people, the leadership and not the technology itself.
“We’re in the fourth season of VAR but throughout the three years they are still making the same basic errors of not understanding what constitutes ‘clear and obvious’ mistakes, an over-indulgence with forensic eye and they just want to get involved.”
Howard Webb is due to join as PGMOL’s first ever Chief Refereeing Officer when the MLS season ends but Hackett says that there needs to be someone in charge in the interim.
Hackett, who is himself the former head of the PGMOL and a Fifa official, said Webb’s return would help address some of the issues but that there was “no guidance, leadership or coaching” for referees.
“It’s down to a lack of leadership. The people involved aren’t right,” Hackett said.
“It’s clear to me what needs to happen – an independent VAR panel needs to be set up. And then we also need to appoint VARs that work as a team with referees. At the moment, the person running the VAR is a Premier League referee themselves
“There needs to be more accountability. Fans need that accountability also. Why can’t supporters listen in on the VAR conversations?”
Hackett reserved his most stinging criticism for the VAR interventions which sent referees to the monitor to review their decisions.
“What we have is the walk of shame in football,” he said. “If VAR intervenes and the referee is sent to the monitor, the likelihood is they’re going to go with VAR. We need to get rid of that mindset because it creates lazy referees.
“Michael Oliver had the courage of his convictions to ignore VAR at the Nottingham Forest game but how often does that happen?”
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