‘I scored 208 Premier League goals – VAR is terrible and needs to be scrapped’ | Football | Sport

Wayne Rooney has urged football’s authorities to abolish VAR after more Premier League madness at the weekend. The England and Manchester United icon believes it is spoiling the sport and failing to deliver consistent results. Rooney branded VAR as ‘terrible’ following the controversy surrounding Manchester City’s chalked-off goal during their 2-1 victory over Liverpool last weekend.

An enthralling encounter descended into chaos when Rayan Cherki’s strike from inside his own half was disallowed deep into stoppage time. The shot was going in regardless of whether Erling Haaland got there or not but VAR ruled out the goal and instead advised Dominik Szoboszlai be shown a red card for fouling Haaland in the build-up, before the ball had crossed into an empty net.

Szoboszlai was dismissed for denying Haaland a clear goalscoring opportunity (DOGSO). Under the rules, the decision was technically accurate – despite it appearing to lack common sense. Both Haaland and City manager Pep Guardiola questioned the logic of the decision post-match. And Rooney reckons the moment has arrived for football to eliminate VAR altogether.

He told The Wayne Rooney Show: “Yeah, it’s definitely the right decision in the end, but it’s obviously frustrating. Once you look at the rules, you understand why it’s given (the free kick), but it just takes out all the passion.

“I think I’d prefer not to have VAR, because I think it’s terrible. “I think it gets good decisions, of course it does, but when it gets big decisions wrong, in this case it hasn’t, but when it gets big decisions wrong, then I just think it’s there to get decisions right. Ultimately, it needs to be doing that more than what it is, in my opinion.

“I’ve lost the Premier League title on goal difference, so that (ruled out) goal might make a big difference. It was a fun moment – and it’s obviously been taken away from us.”

Speaking post-match at Anfield, penalty scorer Haaland said: “For me, of course the referee has to follow the rules, but this will give him [a suspension].

“In the end I feel bad for him, because he gets [the suspension]. Just give the goal, don’t give the red card, simple as that. But I think it’s the rules, it’s just how it is. So I don’t know.

“In the end Cherki just passed me the ball so I could score, but he didn’t want me to, that’s just how it is!”

While Guardiola added: “Common sense, no? We won the game and now Szoboszlai cannot play. I know he pulled him, but many pulls are there in a game where the referee says ‘play on’, ‘play on’, ‘play on’?

“In this country, in this league, it’s always been like that. So give a goal, 3-1, Szoboszlai can play [Liverpool’s next match] and we are happy.”

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