It took nearly six minutes for officials to rule out Manchester City’s Antoine Semenyo’s second goal in the Carabao Cup semi-final against Newcastle at St James’ Park.
Guardiola furious after win against Newcastle (Image: Getty Images)
Josep Guardiola’s extraordinary VAR rant has put refereeing and video technology back in the spotlight.
During Manchester City’s victory over Newcastle in the Carabao Cup semi-final, referee Chris Kavanagh canceled out Antoine Semenyo’s shot after a delay of 5 minutes and 30 seconds.
A thorough VAR check was then carried out and it was ruled that Erling Haaland was offside, affecting Newcastle defender Malik Thiau’s ability to clear the ball.
However, it was revealed that the semi-automatic offside technique did not work due to equipment failure, but rather because the six-yard box was so crowded that the players blocked the camera’s view.
This meant that VAR had to manually draw the line causing delays, which is clearly a major flaw with semi-automatic offsides in that it doesn’t work if the camera is blocked.
read more: Why was Antoine Semenyo’s goal ruled out? Newcastle vs Man City VAR controversy explainedread more: Newcastle star’s reaction to Man City’s VAR travesty says it all – ‘We don’t want to see that’
The PGMO (Professional Game Match Official) said it was frustrating and acknowledged the delay was too long.
It also had a negative impact on matches, but now the average time for VAR checks, including stadium announcements, is less than 50 seconds.
According to PGMO, this is the best in Europe, and PGMO remains committed to utilizing referee decisions.
They also boast the lowest VAR intervention rate, which they believe shows good use of refereeing and refereeing decisions.
Manchester City manager Josep Guardiola has rightly pointed out the fact that he rarely complains to officials and is generally respectful and modest when it comes to big decisions.
The VAR check took nearly six minutes (Image: Getty Images)
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However, Guardiola pointed out some inconsistencies, which the PGMO will also say some decisions boil down to subjective ones.
As in the case with Newcastle, even if the call is legally correct, the final decision is left to the referee.
But this time, a majority of pundits, fans and neutrals seem to believe that Mr. Kavanaugh was ultimately wrong — and it took forever to do so.
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