Former Premier League referee Mark Halsey has called for a time limit to be brought in after officials took an extended period of time to cancel out Gabriel Martinelli’s Arsenal goal against Brighton this weekend.
The Brazilian thought he had equalised on the stroke of half-time when drifting back from an offside position to head into the net, only for VAR to eventually decide that it was offside after much deliberations.
Former official Halsey insists that a time limit should be included for VAR calls, despite the right call having been made this weekend.
“Arsenal’s disallowed goal against Brighton looked like the right call,” Halsey told CaughtOffside exclusively. “Gabriel Martinelli was just offside, his foot strayed offside.
“The question is why did it take four minutes to decide? I know there were other questions in there too – was there a foul? Did it come off a Brighton defender? – but it shouldn’t be taking four or five minutes to make that call.
“That’s what frustrates everybody, the length of time taken. If you’re looking at it for that long then maybe there’s an argument it should just be a goal.
“It might make sense to introduce a time limit on these decision-making processes, because otherwise it can go on and on and on. You can find whatever you want to find in an incident when you take that long.”
The goal probably shouldn’t have been allowed on Saturday, but the delay just makes bad viewing for any and all watching, and the biggest issues with the use of VAR is the disruption to the beautiful game.
This is more about football than it is about Arsenal, and regardless of the decision, the time taken is most definitely an issue.
Would a time limit cause further issues for those close calls, with extra pressure on VAR officials to make decisions quickly?
Patrick
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