Manchester United captain Bruno Fernandes red card controversy exposed

Manchester United have eventually ascertained the reason why VAR did not overturn Bruno Fernandes’ red card, and it has raised significant questions about the Premier League’s technology.

The catalyst for the U-turn may be Bruno Fernandes’ red card for Manchester United against Tottenham Hotspur on Sunday, September 29, if/when VAR is consigned to the annals of history as a football experiment that has failed.

The decision to issue a red card when Fernandes haphazardly extended his leg to impede James Maddison was comprehensible when considering the angles that Chris Kavanagh and his assistant had. Nevertheless, we all awaited the inevitable VAR overturn with patience, as we observed the numerous perspectives that the officials in Stockley Park were aware of.

However, that never transpired. Nevertheless, the on-field judgment was upheld, and United’s performance deteriorated in the second half, culminating in a 3-0 loss.

Was United’s defeat justifiable? Indeed. Would the result have been different had Fernandes remained? Probably not. However, it is possible that the outcome would not have been as pronounced.

The FA’s decision to rescind the three-match suspension and acknowledge a mistake the following week was staggering. It raised the issue of why the call was not overturned by the VAR on the day in question.

Was it because they, like the on-field authorities, believed that the red card was correct? No, rather, PGMOL chief Howard Webb acknowledged that it was probable that the decision was not sufficiently incorrect.

“When the VAR checks it, he forms the opinion that the ‘referee’s call’ is not clearly wrong because he sees the action with the high contact, no attempt to play the ball, with some force and therefore decides in his professional judgment that the ‘referee’s call’ is not clearly wrong,” Webb pointed out. This is the reason why VAR is genuinely meaningless.

Upon its introduction, it was presumed that the technology would eliminate unjust decisions from the game, thereby ensuring more equitable results. The findings we have made are that errors are still occurring, but they are much more difficult to overlook due to the fact that VAR has all the necessary information to make the correct decision, yet they are not.

This week, Webb has successfully revealed the unsavory reality that VAR will permit certain decisions to remain unchanged, even when they are likely incorrect. If that is the case, why do we persist in our efforts to implement VAR?

This has resulted in a decrease in the game’s enjoyment and an increase in the level of controversy surrounding the decisions. This should be the final straw, but the Premier League may be too deeply entrenched to reject the technology at this time.