'It's a shambles, but it can be put right' - former referee Mark Halsey on VAR

Former Premier League referee Mark Halsey has declared that the use of the Video Assistant Referee system (VAR) in this season’s cup competitions in England has been a shambles and questioned whether the technology should be used at this summer’s World Cup finals.

After another night of VAR confusion during Tottenham’s 6-1 FA Cup win against Rochdale on Wednesday, Halsey has given Yahoo Sport his verdict on decisions that left the players and management of both teams and the spectators watching on at Wembley in a state of confusion.

It was the ruling to disallow an opening goal from Tottenham’s Erik Lamela that started the chaos, with Halsey suggesting the VAR has got that decision wrong after they decided to award Rochdale a free-kick following an infringement from Spurs striker Fernando Llorente in the build-up.

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“That Tottenham goal should never have been disallowed and the VAR (Graham Scott) oversaw a total shambles as he got involved in a debate that never needed to take place,” begins Halsey.

“When the authorities spoke with the media about VAR a while ago, they stated the system would only be used for penalties, goals, mistaken identity and red cards and deployed for cases of clear and obvious errors, creating minimum interference and maximum benefit, but we have seen so many subjective decisions decided by VAR and that is a major problem.

“For what should have been the first Tottenham goal against Rochdale, the VAR system was not needed. As per protocol, they check every goal now, but the incident involving Llorente was NOT a clear an obvious error and therefore Graham Scott the VAR should not have got involved.

“However, the referee was told that Llorente committed a foul in the build-up and at that point, Paul Tierney should have gone to look at the monitor to make a decision on whether he needed to award a free-kick rather than a goal as in these situations, the referee has the final say and not the VAR.

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“He didn’t do that and in the end, no one could understand why the goal was not given. The officials did not follow their protocols and in the end, I believe they came up with the wrong decision.

“You only had to look at the reaction of the Rochdale players to realise they couldn’t believe the goal had not been given, with the confusion surrounding so many decisions as the game progressed adding to the feeling that VAR is not being used properly.

“At the moment, VAR is a shambles and it reflects very badly on Professional Game Match Officials Limited (PGMOL) and the officials involved, so we need to put it right.”

Halsey believes any decision to use VAR at this summer’s World Cup finals in Russia needs to be made carefully, as he suggests the system is not being managed properly.

“We have to accept that VAR is in its infancy and there are teething problems, but I still feel we need to embrace it,” he adds. “We have a lot of highly experienced ex-referees out there who could get involved in working with the current officials in using the VAR system and between us, I believe we could find a way to make it work.

“The debate over whether VAR should be used in the World Cup in Russia will continue and if it is anything like what we saw when it was in play at the Confederations Cup last summer, then it will be a mess. We cannot allow that to happen because this is a great opportunity for referees to get help if the system is used correctly.”

Mark Halsey is a former Premier League referee and works with You Are The Ref as senior referee coach.