‘Big six’ bias exposed by VAR – One rule for Man U & Liverpool, another for Newcastle & Brighton

Another matchweek, another set of VAR farces. They’re somehow getting more ridiculous every week.

First, a clueless Harry Maguire jumps with his arms in the most inarguably unnatural – and quite frankly, bizarre – position to commit handball. It was such a handball that he actually knocked it onto his head with his arm!

A stonewall penalty. The actual verdict? Nothing. Later in the match, Wout Weghorst hits out at Moussa Niakhaté. Just a yellow card and no second look from VAR.

On Monday night, Trent Alexander-Arnold elbows the ball to himself to set up an assist for Cody Gakpo. He very clearly moves his arm towards the ball.

No handball given. But the commentators claim it was because he “wasn’t far forward enough to be involved in the goal.” That goal he created and assisted, aye?

These decisions are terrible even as standalone incidents. They become outright scandalous when it becomes clear that it’s just more ‘top’ club bias. Had either of these decisions gone the other way, you know they’d have been given.

You only need to look at last weekend to see how they fall when it comes to the less-powerful clubs.

Let’s look at our very own mags. Callum Wilson scored a third goal against Brentford after the ball came off Ivan Toney’s arm to hit his his arm – with no movement towards the ball and it striking the upper part of his arm. As Wilson himself said it, if he handballed it, so did Toney. But in reality, neither player did. Where’s the logic?

Thankfully, we still won the game. But that wasn’t the case for Brighton at Spurs two weeks ago. Karou Mitoma’s wonderful finish was ruled out for handball despite the ball hitting his chest/shoulder area AND the player actively moving his arm away from the ball. The winger was also denied a stonewall penalty in a game that Brighton could and should have very reasonably won 3-2. A result that could have massive implications in the club’s chase for Europe. Who did it benefit? Ah yes, another ‘big six’ side in Spurs.

There’s no doubt that VAR is having shockers week in, week out at the minute. But the last two weekends have seen so many outrageous decisions that we’re rightly asking questions. Namely, is it incompetence or bias?

How can two of the most blatant handballs you’ll ever see in your life for Manchester United and Liverpool go unpunished, but little ol’ Brighton and Newcastle United get done for far less?

The reason VAR was brought in was to address the sheer incompetence of our officials. And the fact that those same incompetent officials are the ones behind the screen completely defeats its purpose. But when the decisions are so blatant, and there are so many opportunities and angles from which to rectify them, it’s no wonder we’re crying bias again.

We’re not new to this. Bias towards the ‘top’ clubs never went away, but it perhaps went under the radar a little in recent years. As Manchester United haven’t tasted a Premier League title in 10 years, perhaps those little biased decisions have been less noticeable.

I’ve always been a vocal supporter of VAR. In principle, it works. In fact, in most of the other leagues and competitions that it’s been successfully implemented in, it works!

The Premier League is a notable outlier. As are the competencies of our officials. In the same year that VAR was first used in a World Cup, no English referees were present. Considering the state of refereeing in England, it came as no surprise to us.

My argument at the introduction of VAR is that, while it interrupts the game, I’d rather interruptions than get relegated or miss out on a trophy because of an incorrect refereeing decision. But it’s got so bad now that it’s just as likely – except it’s more likely that the decision by the VAR referee will be deliberate instead of incompetent.

The answer is simple; we need independent individuals running the VAR and we need to give them more power to overrule referees. Instead of letting them view an incident 20 (TWENTY) times until they can find something to pick fault in, a la Isak’s “penalty” incident at Brentford.

Let’s stop allowing the people whose mistakes we’re trying to correct make those mistakes from behind a camera instead of on the pitch.