I didn’t celebrate when Alexander Isak scored… | OneFootball

In the 51st minute of the Newcastle United home match against Spurs, Alexander Isak calmly finished to make it 3-0 and give us what proved an unassailable lead.

I didn’t celebrate.

Well, not until it had been confirmed that VAR wasn’t going to intervene.

You see, I thought Alex was offside, when in fact he’d made a perfectly timed run from inside his own half and therefore couldn’t be.

Everyone around me was going crazy, but my instant reaction was one of dread, we weren’t really three goals to the good because someone in Stockley Park was going to rob us of what seemed like a perfect start to the second half.

The fact that they didn’t was great, but for me, that moment of euphoria was gone. Although settling for being three up on Spurs wasn’t too bad, I still felt like I had been robbed.

Being a second tier outfit, fans of Coventry City aren’t used to VAR and its awfulness. Hence, there was unbridled joy from the same end of Wembley Stadium where fans of Newcastle United had congregated in the 2023 League Cup Final in the 119th minute of their epic FA Cup semi-final on Sunday. The wild celebrations were shortlived though, Stockley Park decreeing that because Haji Wright hadn’t clipped his toenails the night before the match, he was offside.

Okay, in slating VAR and its application, it might be convenient if we brush to one side the fact the Sky Blues had managed to force extra time because a dodgy onfield decision to award a penalty in the 95th minute wasn’t overturned, but the fact is, calling the Coventry player offside was utter, utter nonsense. Technology made sense when it was about measuring whether the ball had crossed the line, but when it’s being used to call decisions by fractions of inches that deny us one of the FA Cup’s greatest stories, it feels like we’re losing sight of the bigger picture.

However, the VAR controversy at the weekend didn’t just surround the Cup semi-final on Sunday. Earlier in the day, we had the unedifying spectacle of Nottingham Forest tweeting that because Stuart Atwell, the VAR official on duty for their match at Goodison, was a fan of Luton Town, he had refused to intervene on three occasions when Forest felt they were hard done to.

Apparently, Forest had warned the PGMOL ahead of their decision to confirm Atwell as the VAR official of his connections to a relegation rival, although it might be that Atwell’s inaction meant he was also shafting the club he supported as much as Forest claimed he was shafting them – a draw was surely the most advantageous outcome for the Kenilworth Road club.

Nottingham Forest are owned by the Greek shipping magnet, Evangelos Marinakis, a man not to be messed with it would seem, and their tweet on Sunday, which centred on Atwell and his allegiance to the Hatters, was about dark forces plotting and scheming to conspire against them.

Remarkably, Forest claimed that because their patience had been tested multiple times, they were now considering their options, whatever they might have been. In the immediate aftermath of Sunday’s match, manager Nuno Espirito Santos declared on Radio 5 Live, “if we are in another country we will start talking about conspiracy” but then declined to comment further when asked to clarify what he meant by using the ‘C’ word. Whilst all of this added fuel to the proverbial fire, it was notable that by Monday, Forest had watered down their stance somewhat, instead suggesting it wasn’t about individuals after all, but rather how the integrity of the game is seen.

And that might just about be fair enough, especially when Forest (and Everton) have both been hit with points deductions this season, whilst in a parallel universe, Manchester City plough on and have another tilt at a Premier League and FA Cup double, even though they have 115 charges going back multiple years for alleged breaches of profit and sustainability rules.

If all of this wasn’t bad enough, consider Gateshead FC’s plight.

Unceremoniously dumped out of the out of the National League play-offs for failing to meet the EFL’s criteria for membership.

Essentially, the club cannot provide a guarantee of 10 years of tenancy at their current ground, the council-owned Gateshead International Stadium, so the EFL say they cannot be promoted. And yet, the Heed are managing things in a sustainable manner – they budget within their means, recruit well and this past season have boasted two very capable managers, Rob Elliot taking the helm after Mike Williamson left for pastures new.

Is this down to the intransigence of the local authority, pressured by years of austerity imposed by successive Tory governments and who are looking for a “partner operator” to bear the cost of their leisure facilities? Or is about the EFL, ignoring the National League, the local authority and Gateshead FC to come up with a creative solution, their inflexibility meaning that the Heed’s gruelling 46 match season will count for nowt?

Either way, it is a scandalous outcome, short-sighted and utterly lacking in the common sense, but it says a lot about the way football is going that news of Gateshead’s plight was coming to light on a day of refereeing rows, social media scandals and totally ridiculous VAR decisions.