Antonio Calls For VAR To Be Discarded
West Ham United forward Michail Antonio has called for VAR to be discarded following a weekend of controversial decisions.
The Hammers were denied a point when they lost 2-1 at Chelsea on Saturday.
West Ham thought they had found an equaliser themselves in the 90th minute when Maxwel Cornet pounced on a loose ball and fired in but VAR intervened to rule out the goal, adjudging that Jarrod Bowen had fouled Chelsea goalkeeper Edouard Mendy in the build up.
At Saint James' Park, Newcastle United had a goal chalked off by VAR after Joe Willock was adjudged to have barged into Crystal Palace goalkeeper Vicente Guaita during a goalless draw.
Professional Game Match Officials Limited(PGMOL), the referees governing body, looked into the incidents and admitted that both decisions were wrong.
But Antonio believes VAR has caused more harm than good since its introduction in 2019 and should be done away with.
"It was a madness, that's what I am going to call it. An actual madness. I have said this many times. It needs to be binned," he told the BBC's Footballer's Football Podcast.
"As a player we all knew it [the incident] was nothing. It is all about opinions - about the referee's opinion, about the fourth official's opinion and about the opinion of whoever is watching.
"If the referee makes a decision, then there is another person who goes 'that might not be the right decision'. He goes to the referee 'you might have to have another look at that'.
"He is putting doubt in the referee's mind when he is already sure about the decision he has made.
"He goes over and watches [on the monitor] but because someone has already said to him you might have got that wrong - it has clouded his mind already.
"The person who is meant to make a decision, who is quite sure of his decision, believes his decision is right, has now got that doubt and feels he needs to change - or if he doesn't change [wonders] if he is going to get into trouble because another referee has told him to change.
"It is taking the passion away from football because you don't know if you have scored or not - it is pointless.
"You are spending all this money on VAR for things to still go wrong."
