In an ideal world, Leeds United would not have been made to suffer the sort of frustration which marred Tuesday’s 1-0 Championship victory away at Middlesbrough.
A night in which the travelling supporters from West Yorkshire chewed their fingernails down to stumps as the clock ticked over the 94 minute mark on Riverside.
Leeds United, of course, should have had the game wrapped up long before stoppage time. In a sense, they did wrap it up. Both Ao Tanaka and Patrick Bamford saw perfectly-good goals disallowed by either linesman in either half.
Former Premier League referee Mark Clattenburg described the scenario as ‘unforgivable’. One error is bad enough. But two?
To think, if Middlesbrough had equalised late on, Leeds would have been robbed of two invaluable points.
At this stage of the season – only five games to go and two points separating Daniel Farke’s side in first and Burnley in third – officiating errors like this could very conceivably be the difference between a return to the Premier League and yet more play-off heartbreak.
Simon Jordan explains VAR stance after Leeds United’s Middlesbrough controversy
But what is the solution? VAR in the Championship? VAR throughout the Football League?
Simon Jordan, the former Crystal Palace chairman who knows more than most about the nuts, bolts and finances of professional football, feels that the costs required for implementing such technology are simply beyond those clubs living on a hand-to-mouth basis towards the bottom end of the EFL.
The best option available right here right now, Jordan feels, is to set about improving the standards of refereeing rather than relying upon VAR to fix those mistakes down the line.
“I don’t think it should just be about the Championship getting VAR. I think all professional football should be getting the best version of refereeing,” Jordan argues. The question is the competency.”
In the aftermath of that hard-earned win at Middlesbrough, an irate Daniel Farke suggested linesman Darren Williams should be denied the chance to officiate another Leeds fixture over the remaining five Championship matchdays.
Williams was the man who ruled out Tanaka’s close-range tap in at the Riverside, having already raised his flag to deny two more onside goals against Cardiff City [Joel Piroe] and Coventry [Willy Gnonto] since the turn of the year.
That, however, is where Jordan and Farke disagree. Removing a certain official from a certain fixture because of past mistakes would certainly open up a can of worms and set a rather dangerous precedent.
A can the EFL would understandably rather keep closed.
“I don’t like [Farke’s] argument,” Jordan adds. “I understand why he is making it. He’s suggesting that the assistant referee is incompetent or he is biased. If he’s incompetent, the question should be why is he being an assistant referee in any games?
“If that is the case, we have to look at the standards of assistant referees and referees full stop.”
Premier League is proof that VAR is not a perfect solution
Furthermore, if VAR was an entirely risk-free zone, then the argument for it to be rolled out across the Football League would make far more sense.
However, as regular Premier League viewers will tell you, mistakes are not only still commonplace in the top-flight, they are highlighted even more than ever before in an era where referees and officials are expected, perhaps unfairly in this most subjective of games, to be correct 100 per cent of the time.
“VAR brings it’s own set of arguments doesn’t it,” the former Selhurst Park boss argues. “All we sit in the studio do is listen to people who are not interested in the improvement that VAR has produced, only interested in when it doesn’t get it precisely how they think it should get it in every single instance.
“If [two wrongly disallowed goals] is what has happened for Leeds, then ultimately you make the case. It is a ridiculous situation where you have the regular season not having regular VAR, and the play-off final having VAR.
“Of course, football should have VAR. Why football does not have VAR lower down the pyramids is the cost of it. The hard-wiring of it is several hundred thousand pounds. If you give that to Accrington Stanley, they will tell you why they don’t want to pay it.”
Receive a digest of our best Leeds content each week direct to your mailbox
