Gary O’Neil has called on VAR chiefs to scrap the ‘clear and obvious’ ruling he believes is leading to numerous poor decisions from the technology.
The officials overseeing VAR are asked to overturn the on-field referee’s call only if it is wrong beyond all doubt. Wolves have been on the end of four rough decisions this term and O’Neil held talks with referees’ boss Howard Webb last Sunday.
‘I’ve given some of my ideas to Howard, whether he wanted them or takes them or not,’ said Wolves head coach O’Neil. ‘The ‘clear and obvious’ requirement makes it harder for the people operating VAR.
‘It shouldn’t need to be clear and obvious. The VAR officials are probably thinking ‘We don’t think it’s a penalty but also it’s not a clear and obvious mistake so we’ll leave it.’ That’s not the right solution.
‘The person in the hub should be able to overrule it after watching replays. We’ve probably had four decisions go against us that shouldn’t have done. That’s a lot in 11 games but we also have to understand we can be unlucky.’
O’Neil also revealed that the adjudication team who review the previous weekend’s contentious decisions had determined that the stoppage-time penalty that helped Sheffield United beat Wolves last Saturday should not have been awarded.
The Premier League’s five-strong ‘Key Match Incidents’ panel found unanimously in Wolves’ favour – not that this is of any help to O’Neil. ‘All five of them recognised the decision was incorrect,’ he added. ‘Let’s hope they can recognise the next one in a live situation, before the Tuesday review.’