Brentford head coach Keith Andrews has called for referees to play more of a role in officiating games without over-reliance on VAR, which he said is preventing officials from being allowed to “make mistakes”.
VAR is once again under fire after refereeing body Pro Ref admitted an “error of judgement” in last weekend’s Manchester derby, which saw Erling Haaland’s winner for Manchester City wrongly allowed to stand despite teammate Enzo Fernandez being offside and interfering with play.
The incident led to further criticism of the much-maligned technology, with Manchester United defender Lisandro Martinez calling the decision an “injustice” and even Gary Neville saying, “I’m going to need the offside rule explained to me.” Andrews said the decision to allow the goal was “pretty alarming”.
There was another refereeing controversy in Brentford’s 2-1 win over League One side Reading in the third round of the Carabao Cup on Wednesday night, when Royals defender Paudie O’Connor had a goal ruled out for a high boot, leading the furious Reading boss Leam Richardson to denounce it as “possibly in the top three [wrong] decisions that I’ve seen in my career – and I’ve seen thousands of games and played in hundreds”.
Richardson added: “I’m not saying we win the game [if the goal stood]and I never really come out and criticise officials, but when it starts happening too regularly, you start getting really concerned.”
Andrews struck a more measured note but called for referees to take the initiative and make decisions, suggesting the presence of VAR in most aspects of the domestic game had had a negative effect on their control of it. He said: “It’s been a tough week for officials as everybody is probably aware.
“I think we just need to let them ref the game and be human beings and make decisions.
“We have gone through a period in the game where I feel like they weren’t actually making decisions in both boxes because of the technology we have in the game and I feel like that is a real shame.”
There is no VAR at this stage of the Carabao Cup.
He continued: “I always felt as a player, when there was a relationship with an official that was built on respect and being able to speak to each other in a certain way. We’ve gone away from allowing them to officiate and allowing them to make mistakes and I think it is a real shame.
“Now they are having to go back to that and it’s not the habits they have had in recent years.”
