Tribal Football

Ex-ref slams VAR after Everton denied penalty in Man Utd draw with WRONG footage

Paul Vegas
Ex-ref slams VAR after Everton denied penalty in Man Utd draw with WRONG footage
Ex-ref slams VAR after Everton denied penalty in Man Utd draw with WRONG footageAction Plus
Former ref Mark Halsey has branded the Premier League's VAR as "embarrassing" after an error at the end of Everton's 2-2 draw with Manchester United on Saturday.

Everton believed they had won an injury-time penalty after a foul on Ashley Young, with referee Andy Madley ruling in favour of a spotkick. However, after VAR intervened, Madley overturned the decision. But it has since been revealed Madley was given the wrong video footage to rule from.

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Halsey told The Sun: "The decision to overturn a penalty awarded to Everton near the end of their 2-2 draw with Manchester United was clearly wrong.

"VAR Matt Donohue should NOT have got involved because referee Andy Madley’s on-field call was in no way a clear and obvious error.

"Ashley Young’s shirt was pulled - and when an opponent does that in the penalty area he is asking for trouble.

"When Madley went to the monitor on the advice of VAR he was then shown the wrong footage.

"The Premier League Match Centre posted on social media that Harry Maguire’s challenge on Young had been checked and that no foul had been committed.

"But they failed to take into account that Matthijs de Ligt had pulled Young back by the shirt.

"And had Madley been shown footage filmed from behind the goal he would have seen this.

"The incident was embarrassing."