Dermot Gallagher delivers verdict on farcical VAR delay during Burnley’s agonising defeat to Bournemouth

It has been confirmed that the decision to deny Burnley a late equalizer against Bournemouth was correct, albeit by the slimmest of margins.
Former referee Dermot Gallagher revealed Jay Rodriguez was 27cm offside before his late ‘goal’ while reviewing the weekend’s officiating controversies on Sky Sports’ Ref Watch this morning.

However, the strike was ruled offside on the field of play, resulting in a farcical five minute and 20-second delay while VAR checked.

Initially, the incorrect lines were drawn, with a green line indicating where the goal should have stood. However, the lines were redrawn before turning red.

While Gallagher admits that the VAR check took far too long, he believes the correct decision was eventually reached.

“It did take an awfully long time,” he admitted. “The lines were drawn in the wrong place the first time, and VAR was obviously unhappy, so they were recalibrated.”

“They made the correct decision; it was a difficult decision.” It was only 27cm offside, and it was extremely tight. But it was on the wrong side.

 

 

“Unfortunately it did take so long but we have talked about Brentford that time, when we said it didn’t take long enough, so it took too long but it was right.”

Stephen Warnock, another Sky Sports pundit, chimed in, saying, “As long as you make the right decision…

“What you don’t want is for the game to restart after you’ve scored and we get the same result as the Tottenham game.” At the very least, that decision has been made.

“Yes, it doesn’t look good on TV because of how it was sent out, with the green line and everyone thinking it’s going to be a goal.”
That doesn’t look good, so that’s something Howard Webb and VAR are going to have to look at and talk about.

“They will say they will improve that side of things and I’m sure they will, but as long as they got the right decision eventually, that’s the most important thing, as much as it looks a mess.”

At the end of the game, Vincent Kompany was also irritated by the referee’s failure to check a potential handball as Sander Berge attempted to level matters deep into stoppage time.