Simon Jordan slams lack of VAR in Everton win live on talkSPORT
The lack of VAR at some grounds compared to others in the FA Cup has been blasted as “laughable” by Simon Jordan.
Everton overcame Hull City at the weekend but benefited from there being no video assistant at the Championship side’s stadium, according to the former Crystal Palace chairman.
He compared this to the situation at Old Trafford where VAR was controversially used to disallow Aston Villa’s equaliser against Manchester United on Monday.
“You can’t have VAR at one set of grounds and not at another, that’s an outrage,” the talkSPORT man said live, as shown on the station’s Twitter account on Tuesday.
“Hull probably lost that game to Everton, with two bona fide penalty shouts, because VAR didn’t exist.
“How can that be less important than Man United and Aston Villa?”
Unequal implementation
In the few short years since its introduction in England, VAR has proven to be a lightning rod for criticism.
The weekly complaints about how it is used has died down to a degree in the last year or so as fans have grown used to it and officials have responded to criticism of how it is used, but it is not without controversy still.
The decision to only have VAR working at Premier League grounds in the FA Cup is one of the biggest points of argument currently.
It feels like the system of using the system at some games and not at others is unfair and skews the competition in some way.
But since it is impossible to have VAR working at every ground used in the competition, for instance Kidderminster Harriers could hardly be expected to afford VAR equipment when they host West Ham in the fourth round, the only other option would be to not use it anywhere.
But then, whenever an error is made by the officials at a Premier League ground where the technology would otherwise be available, it would needlessly have to stand.
There are all sorts of inequalities at play in the FA Cup, from the budgets of the clubs to the quality of the pitches, and indeed the ability of the officials, so dispensing with VAR everywhere may not ultimately make sense.
In other Everton news, the Toffees will have to pay €20m for this star “expected” to move.