Premier League VAR causes outrage again

Igor Thiago was determined to be offside.

In the early morning of October 21, the match between West Ham and Brentford not only witnessed the home team's 0-2 defeat, but also sparked fierce controversy over the VAR decision. In the 45+7 minute, Brentford striker Igor Thiago's goal was disallowed after the referee determined offside using a manual line.

Notably, this was the first time this season that the offside lines were used manually, after the Semi-Automatic Offside Technology (SAOT) system suffered a global outage with AWS. The decision to disallow Thiago’s goal was based on him being offside by just a few millimeters, raising questions about the accuracy of manual offside determination in the Premier League.

The clarity of this move has been the focus of controversy, especially since SAOT was not operational. The referee's decision has angered fans and pundits in England. Many Brentford fans believe that if SAOT technology had been used, Thiago's goal would have been completely legal.

West Ham escaped a 1-goal loss thanks to VAR.

Many others believe that the offside rule is too rigid, especially when determining the error by such a small distance that it is insignificant. One fan was upset: "How can a player have an advantage when he is only offside by 0.0001 mm from dozens of meters away from the goal? This rule is really absurd!"

This season is the first time in Premier League history that semi-automatic offside technology has been used. Premier League Technical Director Tony Scholes once commented that SAOT would help shorten the time to make offside decisions, cutting at least 30 seconds compared to the old process, and at the same time make decisions more absolutely accurate. However, when SAOT was not used in the West Ham and Brentford matches, VAR continued to be the focus of criticism.

Source: https://znews.vn/var-cua-premier-league-lai-gay-phan-no-post1595536.html