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Ex-Fifa official: VAR may have glitched after Brennan Johnson controversy at Nottingham Forest
It may have taken so long for VAR to allow Nottingham Forest forward Brennan Johnson’s goal for Wales in their 1-1 draw with Belgium on Saturday (11 June) due to a fault in the technology.
That is the view of ex-Fifa and Premier League referee Keith Hackett, speaking exclusively to Football Insider about the unnecessarily long delay before the goal was confirmed.
As shown on the Sgorio YouTube channel, Johnson scored after a skillful assist by Aaron Ramsey only have to have celebrations delayed by 90 seconds because of VAR check.
As relayed by the Guardian, both Belgium boss Roberto Martinez and Wales manager Robert Page were unhappy with the process.
“I don’t know how the VAR is operating within Uefa, whether it’s going back to a central room somewhere or whether all the equipment is brought to Wales and set up in Wales,” Hackett said after analysing the footage with Football Insider‘s Connor Whitley.
“In defence of the match officials and why it took so long, Cellina at Fifa have always said that time shouldn’t be an issue, it’s decision accuracy that you are after.
“For me, 90 seconds is far too long. There may well have been some technical issues in getting the information on the playback.
“Assuming it’s not, then we’ve really got to get into a process where we get these decisions within 30 seconds to determine offside.
“In fairness to the referee, he made it very clear with his arm in the air to indicate it was an offside review.
“I don’t know what was being played in the stadium in terms of information.
“My concern on VAR centres on two things. Not just the length of time it takes but the lack of communication with fans.
“We should be in a situation where people in charge should be moving towards the application of VAR in the same way that rugby does with TMO. Let us listen in to what is going on.
“There was clearly chatter here between the referee and VAR on this and he probably said ‘I’m getting the replay film and it’s not coming in as quickly’.
“We didn’t see the lines being drawn but that’s a system that appears to have been binned.
“We got to the right decision for sure but I think it took too long.”
In other news, Huddersfield Town may launch a legal challenge and demand the Nottingham Forest play-off final is replayed.