Following last weekend’s VAR shocker in North London, Nick Bruzon has a look 5 more memorable football blunders.
By the time gameweek eight plays out this weekend and we head into another international break, the latest Premier League campaign will be over a fifth of the way through already. When we return, floodlights will be on in force, outfield players will be wearing gloves and the yellow ‘winter’ ball’ will be in play. Where has that gone so fast?
It’s fair to say that things have been exciting so far, with the latest round of fixtures played being no exception. Defending Champions Manchester City had got off to an absolute flying start (six wins out of six) before being stopped dead in their tracks by Wolves. Aston Villa came one short of brackets as they thumped early-season pretenders Brighton 6-1. Missing out on the 7(seven) that we spoke about last week will be of no real concern following this fine victory.
Brentford picked up a point at Nottingham Forest in a game where, had the VAR team actually been watching rather than doing whatever they do in the booth of random guessing, the visitors might have been given at least one of three penalty kicks. All saw them treated extremely harshly, the third in particular where even Forest ‘keeper Matt Turner would later admit he thought the red card would be shown after he ploughed through Wissa.
Yet any frustration felt by Thomas Frank was nothing compared to that of Jurgen Klopp. Liverpool went into the game at Spurs knowing that victory would take them clear of the Champions. Instead, his remaining nine players succumbed to a last-gasp defeat where VAR was, yet again, front and centre for all the wrong reasons.
Curtis Jones was treated very harshly to be sent off just a quarter of the way through the game but that was nothing compared to the fate that befell Luis Diaz. His perfectly legitimate opening goal was chalked off after the VAR team committed what PGMOL (Professional Game Match Officials Limited) admitted that a ‘Significant human error’ had taken place.
It was yet another game ruined by a system which is designed to help, being operated by clowns. In this instance, PGMOL admitted that, “A clear and obvious factual error and should have resulted in the goal being awarded through VAR intervention, however, the VAR failed to intervene.”
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It is something all the more infuriating given that VAR team Darren England and Dan Cook had been in the Middle East on Thursday evening, running the TV for a game UAE Pro League. We can’t say how much the flight or this extra work on the side played in the meltdown at Tottenham but, one thing’s for sure – allowing the officials for the biggest game of the weekend to go off on a jolly just days before won’t have helped VAR’s reputation any.
It isn’t the first time the system has got it wrong, either. Last season Brighton suffered twice – not being awarded a clear penalty in their game at Spurs whilst seeing a goal against Palace chalked off after the lines were drawn in the wrong place. Our own Brentford were also involved in the 1-1 game at Arsenal where Lee Mason eventually quit PGMOL (having earlier in the season denied Newcastle against Palace) after his failure to draw the lines correctly resulted in Ivan Toney’s late equaliser being deemed ‘onside’. Whilst perhaps we got away with that one, let’s not forget that Bryan Mbeumo had been denied an early opener after an apparent foul by Toney in the build-up.
These are just the high-profile incidents. Jurgen Klopp’s subsequent request for the Spurs – Liverpool game to be replayed is only putting VAR under further scrutiny. At this rate, the lawyers are going to be out. Imagine if a mistake of this magnitude was to eventually decide the title or a relegation place?
Every week the fans are dragged through the interminable wait for lines to be drawn and replays revisited. It’s true that it does get it right sometimes but unless it gets it right every time, and quickly, then the system needs to go. At least until those using it can actually use it properly.
The tech IS there but PGMOL and the application of the system are so far off the pace it’s terrifying. It’s killing our game. It’s sucking the passion and enjoyment from football.
All of which is a long-winded route to this week’s top five but things need to be said – even if they are as useful as a man shouting into the wind. Had VAR got it right we’d likely be going into this weekend’s games with Manchester City knocked off their perch. It was that consequential a mistake.
Yet it made me think about when else has football got it wrong? Hundreds of times, as it happens. Whether on pitch errors or things that have happened behind the scenes, I’m sure we all have our own lowlights but for me, these are the ones that stick in the mind.
5: Graham Poll's World Cup shocker
Given the talk of VAR, it seems appropriate to start with a referee. In this case, Graham Poll who had the honour of being the FA’s representative at the 2006 World Cup in Germany. What should have been the pinnacle of his career ended up in debacle after he took charge of the crucial Group F game between Australia and Croatia.
With qualification for the knockout stages at stake, a firey game ended with Poll showing the yellow card to Croatia’s Josip Šimunic not once, not twice but three times. Everybody picked up on this except the man in the middle. Per Poll’s later confirmation, his previously infallible system for recording yellow cards based on team colours and shirt numbers (rather than actual player names) had malfunctioned.
Error/pressure/oversight/whatever resulted in him recording the second booking against yellow ‘three’ instead of the red/white counterpart. That, combined with his forgetting he’d already booked him, meant the Croatian survived until full-time when his post-match complaining earned a third booking and a long overdue red card.
Šimunic was sent off but Mr. Poll and his team of officials were sent home by FIFA.
4: Pontus Jansson ignores the manager
Let’s be clear from the off, I have nothing but the hugest admiration for Pontus. For his desire and determination. The former Brentford club captain and a living legend was also a hero at Leeds United when this incident occurred back in April 2019.
A Championship game at Elland Road against Aston Villa exploded when Jonathan Kodjia went down injured. With the visitors stopping play, in the expectation that the ball would be kicked out so that the physio could come on, Leeds took full advantage and broke forward. The net result was Mateusz Klich scoring the game’s opening goal and chaos on the pitch with Villa’s Anwar El Ghazi sent off for an alleged contretemps with Patrick Bamford – albeit one that showed zero contact with the Leeds’ player and the worst acting this side of The Only Way is Essex.
With Leeds’ manager Marcelo Bielsa showing some much-needed sportsmanship, his message to let Villa walk the ball into the net got through to everybody except Pontus. Yet his straining every sinew in a lung-busting attempt to deny the opposition a goal wasn’t quite enough to deny Albert Adomah the simplest of equalisers.
Whilst Pontus would later explain that Bielsa empathised, telling him,“I totally understand what you did, I would maybe do the same, but maybe try to listen to the coach next time”, within a few months he had signed for The Bees.
An afternoon of mistake after mistake – primarily the bad form and Bamford’s reaction – resulted in Leeds’ loss becoming very much Brentford’s long-term gain. Moreso as Jansson’s final season in West London culminated in the Elland Road outfit being relegated from the Premier League.
3: Steven Gerrard's slip
Season 2013-14 and with three games to go, Liverpool were five points clear at the top of the Premier League. Finally, finally the title was heading back to Anfield. Yes? After all that waiting they would return to the heights of the late 70s/early 80s which so many of their fans were still living in.
Alas not. A home game against Chelsea saw a moment that will be forever linked with the club captain. With the scores locked at 0-0, Steven Gerrard fumbled a pass from Mamadou Sakho, gifting the ball to Demba Ba. Then, that moment.
As he attempted to recover possession, Gerrard stumbled, slipped and fell to the floor, allowing the Chelsea man to race clear and score. Chelsea went on to win the game 2-0. Title dreams in bits. Manchester City closed the gap and, as ever in recent times, went on to win the title
It was a moment made all the more ironic given Stevie G’s post-match pep-talk to the team following the side’s defeat of City just weeks earlier had been caught on film, including his passionate exclamation that, “This does not f*cking slip now!”
Err….
2: Sheffield United pass on a transfer deal
Who is the greatest footballer of all time? Pele? Haaland? Messi? Ronaldo? It is a question that seems to be under permanent debate with everybody having a different opinion. The one thing that you can say for sure is that back in the day, Sheffield United had the chance to sign one of the greatest ever yet passed on the offer.
Back in 1978, Blades’ manager Harry Haslam undertook a scouting mission to Argentina where he was so dazzled by 17-year-old named Diego Maradona that he struck a deal on the spot. A fee of £200 000 was agreed with his club Argentinos Juniors but the transfer collapsed when the United board decided they couldn’t afford the additional fees added on top.
They still signed an Argentinian – Alex Sabella from River Plate – but his presence wasn’t enough to stop United being relegated to the Third Division and a season later, with the player sold to Leeds United, the fourth tier.
Maradona, meanwhile, went on to achieve modest success
1: Southampton sign the wrong player
This is probably my favourite thing in football, ever. As much because it just shouldn’t have happened. It’s the sort of thing that, looking back, seems so implausible it beggars belief as to how it happened. How it played out. How nobody realised until it was way, way too late.
November 1996 and Saint’s manager Graeme Souness took a phone call from somebody claiming to be George Weah. The ‘FIFA World Footballer of the Year’ then explained that his cousin, Aly Dia was available. This former Paris Saint-Germain player apparently had 13 international caps but it was all nonsense. Something both Tony Pulis and Harry Redknapp had realised when receiving similar calls previously.
At least Pulis had the sense to realise Dia was, and I quote, ‘rubbish’ after offering him a trial. For Souness, the opportunity seemed too good to be true and the player was offered a month’s contract after signing from Blyth Spartans (for whom he had played one game).
A practice match against Arsenal might have alerted Saints they had picked up a sinner but it was cancelled due to a waterlogged pitch. Instead, Dia was thrown in at the deep end, coming on for an injured Matt Le Tissier just half an hour into a game with Leeds United.
After lots of huffing, puffing and running around in a style later described as ‘like bambi on ice’ he suffered the ultimate humiliation of being a sub-subbed. Souness eventually coming to his senses on 85 minutes and swapping him out for Ken Monkou.
To this day, nobody knows who made the call impersonating Weah. Likewise, just what due diligence was done at any point in the entire
