Mark Halsey: VAR got Glenn Murray’s winner spot on… his arm was behind his body and the ball came off his knee
Former top ref tells SunSport that we did not find anything out about VAR on last night’s trial, other than that all three goals were fine
WE did not find anything out about VAR on last night’s trial, other than that all three goals were fine.
Even with Brighton’s winner, I saw nothing wrong — Murray moved his arm behind his body and it came off his knee.
The VAR would have looked at every angle shown on TV and for me they got it spot-on.
It first came to our attention in the game following a weak penalty appeal early on after an Andros Townsend shot.
Assistant Neil Swarbrick — watching on several screens from a West London studio — would have been in the ear of referee Andre Marriner, correctly telling him there was nothing in it and to continue play.
Its first use came after Dale Stephens’ opener for Brighton.
You could see that Marriner was in communication with Swarbrick, checking with him that everything was OK, as per International Football Association Board protocol.
It was exactly the same for Bakary Sako’s equaliser. Swarbrick was checking everything throughout and would have been regularly talking to Marriner — if only to confirm nothing was wrong.
After a heavy challenge from James McArthur went unpunished in the second half, the commentators said VAR should look at it.
But the system will not get involved in challenges where the referee has not given a yellow.
McArthur should have been booked by Marriner but those incidents are not for VAR.
It is used only for goals, red cards, penalty decisions and cases of mistaken identity.
Before the game I was amazed to see the head of referees Mike Riley use Dele Alli’s tackle on Kevin de Bruyne last month as an example of when VAR can be used.
Alli was shown a yellow by Craig Pawson but it should have been red.
Yet Riley was completely wrong to highlight this case — all it did was to confuse the issue before the game had even started!
Under IFAB protocols, you cannot review a yellow card.
Had the challenge gone unpunished, then VAR could have drawn it to the referee’s attention.
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The VAR can tell the official that he has made a mistake if he sends a player off for a non-red-card offence.
They can also tell the referee if they have missed a sending-off offence.
But it simply cannot be used to say that a yellow card should have been a red.