Sheffield United boss reiterates VAR stance after Liverpool high-profile goal cock-up

Sheffield United boss Paul Heckingbottom believes VAR still has a role to play in football, as long as decisions are delivered in a consistent manner across the league. The technology has come under fresh scrutiny this week after a high-profile error saw a Liverpool goal against Tottenham Hotspur ruled out last weekend.

Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp attracted derision when he suggested that the game should even be replayed, after his side were reduced to nine men but lost to a late own goal at Spurs. The PGMOL have released audio of the VAR chaos, when Darren England incorrectly thought Luis Diaz’s goal had been awarded rather than ruled out by the linesman’s flag and his “check complete” signal saw play continue at 0-0.

The technology has been a talking point all week, with an extra layer introduced to the VAR process to double-check the on-field decision before a final call is made. Heckingbottom was asked about the issue in the build-up to his side’s trip to Fulham this weekend, with the Hawkeye failure that scuppered a perfectly-good United goal away at Aston Villa in 2020 - and VAR’s subsequent lack of intervention - brought up.

“In this instance, and the Sheffield United one at Villa, those black-and-white moments are more of an operational thing,” boss Heckingbottom said. “I’ve heard the audio, I’m sure you guys have. Within a couple of seconds everyone knows there’s an error and when it’s black and white, and something’s broken, everyone could see it.

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“We didn’t need more technology to see that. We were on the bus [home from West Ham] and we could see it was onside, that it was a goal, and they checked for the wrong thing. There may be scope to change the rules to intervene in a set period of time if something’s gone categorically wrong and people can see it, but things do go wrong and there’ll always be conflict about it.

“From our point of view we want consistency and VAR has a part to play in that. It’s how it’s implemented. The instance with Liverpool, it was a goal and the powers that be realised it was a goal after so long. Could something be implemented where there’s an intervention in there to put it right?”

Heckingbottom has been vocal about the standard of refereeing already this season, following his side’s dramatic late defeat away at Spurs, and his fears were realised with the VAR shambles that affected Liverpool. The level of outrage and media coverage this week was not seen when the Hawkeye technology failed at Villa Park - a result that had huge ramifications for Villa’s Premier League status, with Bournemouth relegated instead that season by a point - but now it has affected one of the top-flight’s big boys, further tampering to the process is almost an inevitability.

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“The problem is the laws and the changes,” Heckingbottom added. “It’s just from a fan survey, worldwide. How do we make the product better? Fans say stop the goalkeepers time-wasting or standing on the ball or surrounding referees. ... What does that look like, how’s that going to be implemented, so it’s the same in every team in every game?

“It can’t just be the away team or a small team doing it against a big team. Those things are issues and how decisions are made. We’ve come away from VAR intervening as often as it did to a clear and obvious error, which is fine, but with that comes a lack of consistency. We need to stick to one thing - how the rules look? - and then get better at implementing them. The rules change all the time. There’s lots of work to do. But we have to try and make it better.”