It was needlessly complicated
Manchester United went into half-time 1-0 up against Huddersfield in today's FA Cup tie at the John Smith's stadium, but it could have been 2-0. We all thought United had doubled their lead before the referee put a finger to his ear and waited for the Video Assistant Referee to help him clarify whether or not Juan Mata was offside.
It was a marginal call, hence the need to refer to VAR, but it seemed to be the right call. Just. However, the process taken the reach that conclusion was nothing short of farcical.
https://twitter.com/btsportfootball/status/964929645819801600
The pundits, Paul Scholes and Robbie Savage were outraged by the decision, as well as the way it was made. Those wobbly lines you are seeing are what the Video Assistant Referee in a TV studio miles away was using to help him make a decision. Nobody can understand why they were not straight. If only there were a white line in close proximity to Juan Mata that they could use as a reference point to draw more straight lines.
This angered fans everywhere and brought more criticism on VAR and the way it's being implemented.
https://twitter.com/WELCOME_DUP/status/964928959132721153
https://twitter.com/SeanDZWalsh/status/964928961682857984
https://twitter.com/AlexShawESPN/status/964927865824440327
https://twitter.com/AranSohal/status/964928908448751617
https://twitter.com/MundialMag/status/964929579726069761
And then came the jokes.
https://twitter.com/vonstrenginho/status/964931444140400640
https://twitter.com/The_Paris_Angel/status/964928930049351680
There's a lot to digest here. Firstly, Mata is marginally offside, but the lines used in the VAR studio does not help when reaching this conclusion. Secondly, Savage doesn't appear to fully understand the offside rule. His exclamation that offside decisions have to be 'clear and obvious' to be given is incorrect. The laws of the game state that a player is offside if "any part of the head, body or feet is nearer to the opponents’ goal line than both the ball and the second-last opponent."
So, that's that then. The VAR experiment continues to cause more controversy than it intended to get rid of.
