MARK CLATTENBURG: VAR should have intervened and awarded Sheffield United a goal

VAR should have intervened and awarded Sheffield United a goal after HawkEye malfunctioned and failed to detect Aston Villa goalkeeper Orjan Nyland carrying the ball over the line.

Officials need to stop acting like robots and take ownership because a human being has to make the final decision, although I attach no blame to referee Michael Oliver in this instance.

Rather, if the goal-line technology has clearly failed, then VAR Paul Tierney needs to tell Oliver, ‘Stop, it was a goal’. Or at the very least they should pause and take a closer look at all of the available angles – do that and you quickly realise it’s a goal.

VAR should have intervened and awarded Sheffield United a goal on Wednesday night

VAR was brought in to stop the scandal, but this is a scandalous situation. Yes, HawkEye has been 100 per cent reliable in the past and has been a brilliant addition, but the VAR officials had the chance to right the wrong and they failed.

In other countries, where there is no goal-line technology, VAR rules if the ball has crossed the line, so it is possible. 

It was telling when no HawkEye image was produced for Sky, as is the norm within minutes of such incidents.

Something has gone badly wrong. But this was still avoidable, if only VAR had done its job and intervened.

HawkEye failed to detect Aston Villa goalkeeper Orjan Nyland carrying the ball over the line