NafisaThe Premier League have clarified that the VAR review which ruled out Nottingham Forest’s goal stemmed from a malfunction with the semi-automated offside system.
Forest were already leading by one when they earned a free-kick on the left flank — Nikola Milenkovic capitalised on the disarray in the area to slot the ball home.
However, VAR alerted the on-pitch referee to a potential offside offence.
“It is hard to say from this angle who is in the offside position.
If it isn’t Nikola Milenkovic and it’s Morgan Gibbs-White — how much interference is he having,” Mark Schwarzer questioned during his segment on BBC Radio 5 Live.
As the evaluation dragged on, commentator Chris Wise remarked:
“This has been going on five minutes now. You have to feel sorry for the referee, he’s in the middle having to front everything up here!”
Eventually, after an extended delay, the goal was upheld — sparking frustration among supporters inside the stadium.
The Premier League has now detailed the reason for the prolonged VAR assessment, citing a fault in the semi-automated offside system.
Posting via their Match Centre X account, the league stated:
“The referee’s call of goal was checked and confirmed by VAR – with Milenkovic in an onside position and Domínguez in an offside position, but deemed not to be impacting on play.
The semi-automated offside technology was not available to the VAR in this incident. There were also issues with the VAR communications to the on-field officials.”
Nevertheless, the drawn-out verdict infuriated supporters online.
“They waved off Henderson’s handball immediately yesterday,” one fan fumed.
While another added: “VAR shouldn’t spend 5 minutes on a decision, true judgement won’t comes out in such cases…”
Nafisa
