Tony Bellew fumes at ‘disgraceful’ incident as Everton draw v Crystal Palace
Tony Bellew has fumed at the VAR decision to give Dominic Calvert-Lewin a red card for serious foul play in the 0-0 FA Cup draw between Everton and Crystal Palace.
The former world champion boxer and massive Everton fan insisted the striker won the ball, making a great tackle, but that opinion wasn’t shared by the officials at Selhurst Park.
VAR deemed the challenge worthy of a red card after his studs made slight contact with Nathaniel Clyne’s shin, with only slow-motion replays showing that.
Taking to Twitter after the incident [4 January], Bellew raged: “Disgraceful. Never ever a red card.
“Wins the ball and it’s actually a great tackle.”
Yet another controversial call
Overall it was a boring game at Selhurst Park, not a lot happened by way of chances or incidents until the controversy around the VAR call. Perhaps that’s why they felt the need to make the decision, to spice the game up and get people talking.
While there can be no argument made that Calvert-Lewin’s studs made contact with the shin of his opponent, the replay at full speed showed there was very little contact, and it would not have been significant enough to cause any damage.
Due to the nature of the tackle, with the Everton man hooking his leg around to retain possession of the ball rather than hook it away, there was simply nowhere else his leg could have been. So is he supposed to just not make the challenge?
Once again, it’s VAR writing the headlines, and while an otherwise boring game was sprung into life by the decision, Everton will suffer from missing their first-choice striker for the next three games as a result.
In other Everton news, a 2/10 player stunk out Selhurst Park.