PGMOL send apologies to Man United after Three VAR error this season

PGMOL send apologies to Man United after Three VAR error this season

Manchester United have been involved in three VAR decisions that have led to apologies by PGMOL in the last two seasons.

Following another weekend full of controversy caused by the video assistant refereeing system, Sky Sports (via X account @football_tweet) have broadcast a list of all those decisions made or not made by the system that the referee’s association has admitted were incorrect.

Most fans would agree that there are probably hundreds of examples, but 14 have been acknowledged, two of which went in United’s favour and one of which went against them.

The first, in September 2022, involves an Arsenal goal against United that was ruled out.

The acknowledgement is that “Gabriel Martinelli’s goal for Arsenal was ruled out by VAR after Martin Odegaard was incorrectly deemed to have fouled Christian Eriksen in the build up.”

The second incident involving the Red Devils came against Aston Villa in November 2022.

Every VAR Apology In the Premier League in the last 2 seasons. 😣

📸 @SkySportsNews pic.twitter.com/fsatPvQhqS

— Football Tweet ⚽ (@Football__Tweet) October 2, 2023

The apology states “Lucas Digne scored a free kick but a post-match review concluded the United wall was set too far back, giving the Villa full-back extra room for the set-piece.”

The third incident was in United’s opening game this season against Wolves. The statement reads “Andre Onana recklessly challenged Sasa Kalajdzic inside the Man Utd box but VAR Jonathan Moss failed to instruct on-pitch referee Simon Hooper to check the pitchside monitor for a penalty.”

Some of the awful decisions I can recall from this season. Manchester United against the world and the only one thing rival fans pull up is the controversial goal against Man City. It's so obvious at this point pic.twitter.com/0uJ7qmFkmT

— UtdDanny (@UtdDanny1) March 13, 2023

Given all the refereeing errors made over the last two years, the inclusion of the Onana one in the elite list of apologies is particularly curious, as although Onana did not touch the ball, he was entitled to jump for it and the lack of VAR intervention would hardly seem to fit the category of a clear and obvious error.

Compare this to Saturday’s game alone, where two hand ball incidents, one for and one against United, should surely have merited pitchside review by the referee but neither was brought to his attention by the VAR.

Against Arsenal, Erik ten Hag was fuming about three decisions that went against United, including what appeared to be a blatant foul on Rasmus Hojlund by Gabriel in the penalty area.

At the end of last season, a fan put together a compilation of a host of decisions that went against United last term, many if not all of which were surely worthy of some sort of explanation from PGMOL.

Of course, every club’s fans believes that referees are against them but there does seem to be a pattern where United are concerned.

Referees are human beings. Mike Dean admitted recently not calling his friend Anthony Taylor on VAR in a Chelsea vs. Tottenham game to “avoid causing him extra grief”.

This is an admission of a flawed and subjective system that must be overhauled and replaced with something where personal preferences and personalities do not exert undue influence on particular clubs