VAR denied Tottenham Hotspur the chance to leave Leicester City with a potential win on Saturday after Serge Aurier’s goal was ruled out while the visitors were leading 1-0.
Harry Kane had put Spurs ahead in the 29th minute, and the Ivorian right-back thought he had doubled their lead in the 64th minute after he lashed a low shot past Kasper Schmeichel into the net.
However, replays confirmed that Son Heung-min was slightly in an offside position during the build-up to the goal, and it was ruled out after a lengthy VAR check.
The South Korean was only ahead of Leicester’s last defender by a few centimeters, but it was enough to count, and the decision has since sparked a lot of debates.
“If VAR tells us Son Heung-min was 1.6cm offside, then he is offside. We need to accept that if the camera shows a player to be offside, no matter how small the margin, then the decision will be given. Do we then start not allowing goals which are just 1.6cm over the line? No. This is one aspect of VAR we have to stop complaining about,” he told Sportsmail.
“I have seen the argument that, in such tight situations, the on-field decision should be respected, like umpire’s call in cricket. But this is forgetting the fact that assistant referees have been told to keep their flag down and allow attacking phases to play out — so we do not know if Son would have been flagged offside or not without this instruction.
“As for the suggestion that the VAR system is not 100 percent accurate because of the frame rate, we have to accept that this is the best technology available right now and respect what it shows — even if that is 1.6cm offside.”
Spurs have been saved by VAR on a few occasions, but it didn’t favour them this time around, and manager Mauricio Pochettino will be left gutted.
Ricardo Pereira drew the hosts level five minutes later, and things got worse when James Maddison scored what turned out to be the winner for Leicester five minutes from time.
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