Add William Gallas to the list of former players lending his voice to the growing chorus lamenting the standard of officiating in the Premier League following the controversial decision made during Tottenham vs. Liverpool last weekend.
Liverpool's Luis Diaz had a goal nullified for offside, a decision confirmed by VAR, which referee body PGMOL later admitted was a result of "significant human error."
It turned out to be a potentially game-changing moment for Liverpool, who would have gone up 1-0 on the Diaz strike but instead ended up losing the match 2-1. And now Gallas, a former longtime Premier League defender with stints at Chelsea, Arsenal and Spurs, has joined in on the criticism of officiating in England's top flight — and VAR is his primary target.
"Every weekend there are problems with VAR or the referees," Gallas said while speaking to Gambling Zone. "The idea behind the technology is to try to help eradicate referee mistakes because, sometimes, it isn’t easy for them to make the right decisions.
"Now, we’re seeing more and more mistakes with the VAR. When the technology isn’t working or there are the same mistakes, then I think it is right to question the future of VAR or, at the very least how it is used.
"Everyone that watches football or plays football hates it when we have to wait for goals to be awarded because of VAR."
The former France international sees changes in the way the sport is officiated, and predicts that the introduction of VAR will lead to more technology being used. Gallas can see a future where referees will be required to publicly explain every decision, similar to how other sports handle such decisions.
He's not a fan of such a possibility.
"It looks like that soon enough, football will introduce something similar to American football where the referee is mic’d up and communicates every decision to the players, the crowd in the stadium and everyone that is watching at home," Gallas said.
"Every decision will be broadcast. It looks like that is the future of football. Listen, football has changed a lot over the last few years. There have been too many changes.
"Football people are frustrated. We can’t even celebrate properly anymore when our team scores. We just want to watch the game and have a good time you know?"