Liverpool Were Denied A Penalty Against Arsenal, And I’m Sick Of VAR Excuses
I’m absolutely sick of this.
Liverpool should have had a penalty against Arsenal. We didn’t get one, we lost the match 1-0, and now we’ve been told that the officials got it wrong.
Wonderful. What are we supposed to do with that information?
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The Key Match Incidents Panel has confirmed what many of us believed when we watched Jurriën Timber pulling Alexander Isak’s shirt inside the penalty area.
Four of the five panel members believed referee Andy Madley should have awarded Liverpool a penalty. Three of the five also believed VAR should have intervened and recommended an on-field review.
So the referee got it wrong, VAR failed to correct him, and Liverpool are left with nothing.
Arsenal have their three points. The match is over. The result stands.
And we’re expected to move on.
I’m sorry, but I can’t keep accepting that.
Liverpool Deserved Better Against Arsenal
I understand that referees make mistakes.
They have one look at an incident in real time, often with bodies blocking their view, and they’re expected to make a decision immediately.
That’s difficult. I’ve never disputed that.
But that’s precisely why VAR was introduced.
We were told technology would help correct the obvious mistakes that referees inevitably make. It would give officials another opportunity to look at incidents that could change matches.
So how does somebody watching multiple replays of Timber pulling Isak’s shirt decide that no intervention is necessary?
That’s what I cannot understand.
The independent panel has now voted that the original decision was wrong and that the VAR should have recommended a review.
What more evidence do we need that the system failed?
This wasn’t some meaningless decision in a match Liverpool had already won comfortably.
It happened against Arsenal, one of our biggest rivals, in a match decided by a single goal.
A penalty could have changed everything.
I’m not saying Liverpool would definitely have scored it. I’m not saying we were guaranteed a point or three.
But we deserved the opportunity.
And that opportunity was taken away from us by an incorrect decision.
VAR Has Made Football More Frustrating
I’ve reached the point where I’d happily get rid of VAR tomorrow.
I know that puts me in a minority, and I know plenty of supporters believe the technology is worth keeping.
That’s fine.
But I genuinely preferred football when a referee made a mistake and we accepted that he’d only seen the incident once.
Now we have the original mistake, the VAR mistake and another round of explanations afterwards.
And somehow we’re supposed to feel better because an independent panel eventually agrees with us.
I don’t.
I feel angrier.
We’ve been through this before with Liverpool.
I still haven’t forgotten Luis Díaz having a perfectly legitimate goal ruled out against Tottenham. We’ve had the Martin Ødegaard handball against Arsenal and Jérémy Doku’s challenge on Alexis Mac Allister against Manchester City.
Each incident has its own circumstances, but the frustration keeps building.
I’m also tired of hearing former referees defend decisions that ordinary supporters can see are wrong.
Dermot Gallagher suggested that asking the referee to review the Isak incident would effectively amount to VAR refereeing the match.
Well, what exactly is VAR supposed to be doing?
If the referee has missed a penalty, surely the whole point is to tell him.
Otherwise, why are we bothering?
Refereeing Accountability Must Improve
One of my biggest frustrations is the imbalance in accountability.
When a manager publicly criticises an official, there’s every possibility he’ll face disciplinary consequences.
Players can find themselves in trouble for questioning decisions.
But when officials make mistakes that potentially change results, what happens?
We get an explanation. Sometimes somebody misses a match. Then everybody carries on.
I don’t think that’s good enough.
And before anybody starts accusing me of claiming there’s some conspiracy against Liverpool, I’m not.
I have no evidence that officials are deliberately making decisions against us, and I’m not interested in pretending otherwise.
I also recognise that supporters of other clubs will have their own examples of terrible decisions.
That’s part of the problem.
We spend so much time laughing at rival supporters for being angry that we forget we’re all watching the same broken process.
When Arsenal suffer a poor decision, Liverpool supporters celebrate. When Liverpool suffer one, Arsenal supporters tell us to stop moaning.
Meanwhile, the standards remain the same.
Football needs more transparency, better explanations and a genuine willingness to improve.
I’d like to hear the conversations between referees and VAR officials as they happen, rather than waiting for selected recordings to be released afterwards.
And I want the rules surrounding intervention to be clearer.
This obsession with whether something meets a supposedly clear and obvious threshold has created an enormous amount of confusion.
If a penalty should have been awarded, correct the decision.
It really shouldn’t be more complicated than that.
Liverpool Cannot Recover What VAR Cost Them
What bothers me most is that the consequences don’t disappear when somebody admits an error.
Liverpool are trying to build momentum under Andoni Iraola. Every point matters, particularly against teams we’re competing with near the top of the Premier League.
The Arsenal match has gone.
We cannot replay it, and nobody is handing Liverpool an opportunity to take that penalty now.
That’s why these retrospective findings feel so hollow.
They tell supporters their frustration was justified without offering any meaningful remedy.
I want refereeing standards to improve for everybody. I want supporters to spend more time discussing football and less time arguing about officials.
And if that means fundamentally changing VAR, or getting rid of it altogether, I’m absolutely open to that conversation.
Because what we’ve got right now isn’t working well enough.
Liverpool deserved a penalty against Arsenal.
The panel agrees.
And I’m still waiting for somebody to explain why the people responsible for making the decision couldn’t see it when it actually mattered.
Much Love.