Burnley shareholder JJ Watt proposes major change to VAR after farcical scenes
Burnley shareholder JJ Watt has proposed a shake-up of VAR that would give officials a 60-second time limit.
It comes after the Clarets had two goals disallowed during last Saturday’s dramatic and, at times farcical 4-3 defeat to Brentford.
An almost three-minute delay followed Zian Flemming’s ‘goal’, which would have put Burnley 4-3 ahead, which was eventually chalked off for an offside from Jaidon Anthony in the build-up.
After the lines were drawn, it was shown that Anthony was offside by the barest of margins, by just a tiny section of his shirt sleeve.
But worse was to follow for Scott Parker’s side, who thought they had equalised in the final seconds of the game after the Bees had restored their lead, also in stoppage-time.
But Ashley Barnes’ strike was ruled out after it was adjudged the striker had used his arm to bring the ball down, despite no replays proving beyond all doubt he did in fact handle.
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On this occasion it took almost five minutes for the officials to come to a decision.
The incidents were just the latest in a long line of grievances fans have with VAR, not just Clarets but supporters of clubs up and down the country.
“I know I’m not the only one frustrated about this,” Watt – who was at the game – told Men in Blazers.
“There’s similar things in the NFL, they’re trying to speed it up and they’re trying to find ways, but the whole point of this entire thing at the very beginning of it was for them to clear up clear and obvious errors.
“It was not for us to be finding toenails that are offside by 3cm, it was not for us to decide with a microscope if this is off his hand or off his hip. It was for clear and obvious.
“In my personal opinion, if you turn on that tape and it’s not clear within 60 seconds, leave the on-field decision as it stands.”
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