The referee shouldn’t have been sent to the monitor to review the penalty decision involving Eberechi Eze, according to ex-ref Dermot Gallagher.
Arsenal’s Eberechi Eze was brought down late in the first leg of Wednesday’s Champions League semi-final tie against Atletico Madrid, with the referee initially pointing to the spot to award a penalty.
Yet the official was then sent to the monitor by VAR, and after watching the incident 13 times while Diego Simeone stood a few yards away shouting at him, he overturned his original call and gave Atletico the ball (particularly frustrating given Arsenal’s Bukayo Saka had been in possession).
Former referee Dermot Gallagher has told Sky Sports that he thinks the referee made a mistake in overturning his original call, adding that the initial error was that the VAR official sent the referee to the monitor in the first place.
“In the past, in UEFA they’ve tried to stick with the on-field decision,” Gallagher began. “If you look at one of the angles, it looks as though Eze is clearly fouled. You look at another angle, it’s inconclusive. Rather than look at inconclusive angles, look at conclusive ones.
“The referee thinks it’s a penalty on field, the VAR I think looks at it too much. Is it enough to turn over? I think not. I don’t think it’s the most obvious penalty in the world, but once it’s given, it’s given. It’s got to be clear and obvious, there isn’t enough to overturn it.
“In this case, I think [the problem is] not the fact that the referee has gone to the screen and changed his mind, I think it’s the fact the referee’s been sent to the screen. That’s the key for me.
“He’s sent to the screen because the VAR thinks it’s a clear and obvious error. Most people look at that, whether they think it’s a penalty or not, most people say ‘well, I don’t think there’s enough to overturn it’.”
The frustration for Arsenal fans is certainly with the VAR overturn. There’s no angle of the incident that shows conclusively that Eze wasn’t fouled, the referee believes he’s seen the foul in real time, so how can there possibly be enough evidence to overturn it?
The only way it could be a clear and obvious error is if the replays confirmed that there was no contact between the two, or that the Atletico player won the ball. But no replay has emerged to show that, even two days after the game.
Gallagher is right that it was a mistake to send the referee to the monitor, where he could be influenced by the whistling fans and the yelling Atletico manager into crumbling under the pressure and changing his mind. There was no need for a review.
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