VAR

VIKTOR GYOKERES’ penalty should not have been overturned. The Arsenal forward went through on goal and was fouled by Nick Pope.

Newcastle goalkeeper Pope got a touch on the ball but he did not win the ball. The touch does not negate the award of a penalty.

2

2

Why did VAR get involved? It was not a clear and obvious error from referee Jarred Gillett. The on-field decision should have stood.

Gyokeres played it onto Pope, that is how he got the touch and then there is a late challenge and brings him down.

How many times do you see a foul given for a player that wins the ball and follows through?

The touch does not mean it is not a penalty. VAR should not have got involved.

We saw this last season at Brighton when William Saliba was adjudged to have committed a foul on Joao Pedro after he headed the ball.

Newcastle then wanted a penalty of their own late on after Anthony Elanga’s cross struck Gabriel’s arm inside the box.

But Gillett got this right. It was not a penalty.

It was a blocked tackle, it came back off Elanga and hit Gabriel’s arm, which was in a natural position.

CASINO SPECIAL – BEST CASINO BONUSES FROM £10 DEPOSITS

When you go to ground, where else can your arm go? Your arm has got to be in the air.

And look at the pace of the ball and the close proximity.

I would have been amazed if Gillett would have recommended a review.

Rayo were furious after a VAR failure meant Lamine Yamal’s first-half penalty could not be reviewed in their 1-1 draw against the defending La Liga title holders.

Barcelona dropped their first points in La Liga this season as Rayo Vallecano fought back to secure a 1-1 draw at home to the champions in a testy encounter where a faulty Video Assistant Referee (VAR) system caused controversy.

Rayo substitute Fran Perez thrashed home a 67th-minute equaliser as he stole in unmarked at the back post from a corner after Lamine Yamal’s 40th-minute penalty had put Barca ahead on Sunday.

A malfunctioning VAR ensured the game was clouded in controversy after Pep Chavarria’s challenge on Yamal, which led to the spot kick being awarded, could not be reviewed because the system was not working at the time.

Chavarria did make contact with Yamal’s thigh, but the penalty award might have been overturned on review.

Both teams had been informed of the faulty system at kickoff, but Rayo’s vigorous protests over referee Mateo Busquets’s decision ensured the rest of the clash at Vallecas Stadium was played in a tempestuous atmosphere.

Indignant home supporters voiced their fury at every subsequent decision that went against their side.

Barcelona goalkeeper Joan Garcia made several outstanding stops to deny Rayo a win at the end of a week in which the club from the Madrid suburbs secured a place in the Conference League group phase on their return to Europe after 24 years.

Garcia made a point-blank save to deny Andrei Ratiu in the 12th minute and, in the second half, spectacularly denied efforts from Isi Palazon and a breakaway on goal by Jorge de Frutos.

Substitute Sergio Camello could have won the game for Rayo in the last minute, but with the goal at his mercy, he miscued his shot, allowing a grateful Garcia to gather easily.

For Barca, Daniel Olmo was guilty of missing an easy goal soon after teenager Yamal’s penalty had put the visitors ahead. Olmo’s strike sailed over the top of the crossbar from close range, setting off an angry reaction from furious coach Hansi Flick.

Barcelona had won their opening two games of the season, but the dropped points mean Real Madrid and Athletic Bilbao are the only two clubs with a 100 percent record after three matches in La Liga. Rayo have four points from their opening matches of the campaign.

MICHAEL SALISBURY has been REMOVED as the VAR official for Liverpool vs Arsenal just hours before kick off.

Salisbury, 40, was on VAR duty for Chelsea’s 2-0 victory over Fulham yesterday, during which he controversially sent the referee over to the monitor to disallow Josh King’s opener.

2

2

THIS IS A DEVELOPING STORY..

The Sun is your go to destination for the best football, boxing and MMA news, real-life stories, jaw-dropping pictures and must-see video.Like us on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/TheSunFootball and follow us from our main Twitter account at @TheSunFootball.

Everton manager David Moyes says he’s disappointed by the crucial video assistant referee decision that gave Leeds a 1-0 win, insisting James Tarkowski did everything he could to avoid conceding a late penalty.

WATCH: Match of the Day highlights: Leeds 1-0 Everton

Available to UK users only.

NEW Laws and new tech – meaning the Club World Cup will look unlike any football tournament we’ve seen before.

Fifa has decided to bring in all the Law tweaks agreed at the International FA Board meeting in Belfast in February for their new flagship.

6

6

That means the “five second countdown”, with referees raising their hand to tell goalkeepers to release the ball or see a corner awarded to the opposing team.

The latest live trials, in South America’s Copa Libertadores and Copa Sudamericana, saw just TWO incidents where the glovemen exceeded the maximum eight seconds with the ball “under control”.

Fifa will also enforce the “captain’s only” rule for talking to referees, with yellow cards for any players who offend.

The so-called “Arteta rule”, meaning no further punishment other than an indirect free-kick if coaches or substitutes accidentally touch the ball before it goes out of play, will also be invoked for the first time.

As will a new penalty rule, where “double touches” – players unintentionally hitting the ball against their own foot or leg – will bring a retake if the spot kick is converted, rather than being disallowed.

But just as eye-opening will be the technology applied for the first time in competitive play, as Fifa pushes new barriers.

The biggest will be using the latest, AI-aided semi-automated offside technology, where a signal will automatically go to the assist referee when a player breaking the defensive line and more than just four INCHES offside plays the ball.

Rugby fans have become used to “ref cams”, attached to the official’s chest and giving an intimate view of scrums.

6

6

BEST ONLINE CASINOS – TOP SITES IN THE UK

But Ifab approved football to go down the same path, with the cameras at eye level, attached to the referee’s VAR communication device.

While “live” shots will not be broadcast during play, they will be available to give fans, both at home and in stadiums, the chance to see goals and other incidents from the ref’s perspective.

Conversations between refs and VARs can still only be broadcast after a match has finished but supporters inside the grounds will be able to view the images for pitchside monitor reviews at the same time as the officials themselves.

And there will be no excuses for messed-up substitutions, with coaching teams handed a tablet to input player changes directly, rather than having to hand written notes to the fourth official.

6

6

Referee Bobby Madley has said he “hates” the video assistant referee technology in football because it takes the “emotion away” from the game.

Madley officiates matches in the English Football League (EFL) and is a fourth official for Premier League games.

The EFL does not use VAR in regular league games, but it has been employed across matches in England’s top flight since the start of the 2019-20 season.

“As a fan, hate it, hate it. Love the Championship, love League One – I’m still a fan,” said Madley, who was speaking at the Cheltenham Science Festival during an event on technology in sport.

“I love League One because you score a goal, you look at the referee, you look at the assistant, he hasn’t put his flag up, it’s a goal.

“It [VAR] takes that emotion away from it and football is a game where there could be one moment in the game, one goal, and that’s it.

“To take that emotion away, to have to wait and wait, and what feels like an eternity, as a fan I’m not a huge fan of that experience.”

Madley refereed 91 Premier League matches between 2013 and 2018 until he was sacked by Professional Game Match Officials Limited (PGMOL) after sending a video mocking a disabled person to a friend.

He moved to Norway and officiated in the country’s lower league before accepting an opportunity to return to English football as a National List referee in February 2020.

He took charge of one Premier League game in 2022-23 and another the following season but did not referee a top-flight match in 2024-25.

“There’s so much money in football, it’s business-driven. So any mistake is perceived to cost people money,” added Madley.

“And I don’t think most football fans were clambering over each other to get video technology.

“The players weren’t, the referees weren’t, but the people who run football, they are multimillion-pound and billion-pound people, and they had issues with referees getting things wrong.

“I think we’ve got to the stage where people go, ‘Sorry, we’re ruining football with this now’.

“But we knew the monster that had been created. As referees, we knew what was coming.”

NOTTINGHAM FOREST would have earned a Champions League spot at the expense of Newcastle if VAR did not exist.

And the Magpies’ escape from any consequences for their home defeat by Everton is put into even starker content as they would have missed out on European football altogether without the technology.

3

3

SunSport have analysed all 380 Prem matches this term and worked out how the table would have looked if the original on-field decisions had not been overturned after intervention by the Stockley Park video booth.

Our number crunchers found that Eddie Howe’s men were by far the biggest beneficiaries of VAR changes. 

Newcastle had a staggering 13 decisions changed in their favour, with just five reversals hurting them.

That brought a net figure of +8, with Aston Villa and West Ham next in the benefits column with each having four more interventions in their favour than against them.

Our analysis, which assumes every penalty that was initially awarded and then wiped was scored, suggests that without VAR Newcastle would have picked up four fewer points – dropping them to eighth in the table – and conceded seven more goals.

Forest, whose home defeat by Chelsea left them in the Conference League slot, would have finished fifth in our “No VAR” table.

And Bournemouth, ninth in the actual table, would have been preparing for a first continental campaign in the Europa League without the technology changes.

Andoni Iraola’s side had 11 VAR changes against them and just three in their favour, costing the Cherries EIGHT points and seven goals.

The study of the 111 changed decisions cannot determine definitively what would have happened in real life if the initial decisions had not been overturned.

But one of the most contentious calls saw Dango Ouattara’s last-gasp “winner” against Newcastle in August chalked off for a handball PGMOL chief Howard Webb subsequently conceded was wrongly overturned after the VAR intervention.

Over the course of the season there were 12 goals and 25 penalties awarded through VAR intervention – with 21 of those spot-kicks converted – compared to 48 goals and 11 penalties disallowed.

Liverpool’s 10-point advantage over Arsenal at the top of the pile would have been reduced to just two without VAR, as the Gunners lost eight points from the six overturns against them – including “winning” goals against Chelsea, Fulham and Aston Villa.

Chelsea and Manchester City swap places, with the Londoners up to third, with Villa down one to take the Conference League slot.

3