October 3 – Manchester United has finally received some good news. Club captain Bruno Fernandes’ red card in Manchester United’s 3-0 loss to Tottenham Hotspur last Sunday has been rescinded.
The Football Association deemed the challenge on Tottenham Hotspur’s, James Madison just before half-time in their match at Old Trafford was a case of wrongful dismissal. This means the United captain’s three-game ban has been reversed.
The much maligned and under pressure manager, Eric Ten Hag had decided to appeal the decision by referee Chris Kavanaugh for Fernandes’ reckless challenge on Madison. Multiple replays though, showed Fernandez had slipped as he looked to challenge Madison and this had a huge impact on the challenge. For many watching experts, it was somewhat mystifying that the VAR officials did not overturn the decision.
While on-pitch referee, Kavanaugh didn’t have the best view of Fernandes’ lunge, Peter Banks in the VAR booth had multiple views and still went with the on-field referee’s decision.
So, here we have a situation where one official says red card, a second official with multiple TV monitors agreed, and yet a Commission with more time to reflect, sit around, converse, and concluded that both officials were wrong. By the way, that Commission is made up of three ex-professional players!
Towards the end of last season, Wolverhampton Wanderers put forward a motion to kill-off VAR as a concept. They failed. One has to wonder, what is the point of the VAR system? The argument for VAR is that with enough time and technology, errors made by the official on the field can be fixed in real-time. While no one is claiming that we will ever reach 100% accuracy VAR we are told is supposedly moving us in that direction.
The Fernandes decision has demonstrated that the logic is flawed. The fact that a Commission three days later can overturn a match official and VAR decision clearly demonstrates that the concept of VAR settling and ending debates over controversial incidents is nothing more than a pipe dream.
