Throw VAR in the bin…
Patrick Bamford appeared to have drawn the scores level between Leeds and Crystal Palace after Scott Dann’s early header gave the hosts the lead, but his goal was ruled out for offside after a VAR check.
On BT Sport score, Robbie Savage described it as the “worst decision in the history of football.”
The game was on BT Sport Box Office, so we cannot show you a video of the goal in question. Rest assured it was a lovely scooped finish. But we can show you a still image of the offside, which tells the whole story.
As you can see, almost the entirety of Bamford’s body is onside, except for the end of his arm, because he is pointing at the space he wants the ball played into. He gets the ball played into that space and scoops the ball past Vicente Guaita.
But VAR saw it correct to disallow this goal, despite all the visual evidence presented suggesting there was nothing illegal about it.
The lines drawn on on the screen apparently show his armpit, which apparently you can score with, being offside. But if you look at the picture with your eyes, it’s clear the line is drawn down from his bicep, not his armpit. Post-match, Bamford told the BBC:
“I don’t understand the rule. You can’t score with your arm. It doesn’t make sense. It’s happened with me today but I’ve seen it on numerous occasions. It’s ruining football. You want to see goals. To have it ruled out for something like that is daft.
“Even the referee couldn’t make sense of it. When the players and the officials can’t make sense of it… does it make sense?”
Even advocates of VAR must disagree with its implementation here. In what world is this offside? Look me in the eye and tell me that’s offside. It isn’t, is it?
Anyway, thankfully it didn’t matter because Palace went on to win 4-1, with goals coming from Dann, Ebere Eze, a Helder Costa own goal and Jordan Ayew.
