November 9 – VAR intervention on offside reached a new level of absurdity at the weekend when Leeds United striker Patrick Bamford had a goal ruled out.
Bamford raised his left upper arm and pointed to where he wanted the ball to be delivered by teammate Mateusz Klich.
Bamford ran on to the ball and scored what would have been a crucial equalising goal against Crystal Palace in a game that Leeds went on to lose 4-1. While all of Bamford’s body and his feet were clearly onside, his goal was ruled out on the ‘shirt-sleeve’ interpretation of handball in that it was in an offside position and the ball could conceivably hit the top of his arm, not be a handball but could result in a goal.
What is hard to conceive is that this ruled out a goal that wasn’t scored in this way.
Former Wales midfielder turned BBC pundit Robbie Savage described the decision as “the worst in the history of football”.
The point is that decision was made consciously and was not a mistake in the eyes of the officials.
Bamford, picking up on an increasingly frequent point being made about VAR decisions, said that “It could have been a different game” if the goal had been allowed to stand.
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