McCoist vs Morgan as pair clash over Arsenal VAR controversy – ‘You’ve disagreed with yourself’

Ally McCoist and Piers Morgan have clashed over Newcastle’s controversial goal in their 1-0 win over Arsenal on Saturday, and the ‘clear and obvious’ nature of the supposed VAR error.

Mikel Arteta was very angry indeed at the Newcastle goal being allowed after VAR checked whether the ball was out, if a foul had been committed and whether there was an offside, and came to the conclusion that the goal should not be overturned.

Arsenal have since released a statement backing Arteta in his rant, in which he called the process a “disgrace” and insisted “too much is at stake” in the Premier League for the officiating to be so poor.

Morgan, a big Arsenal fan, said he was pleased with the passion shown by Arteta, before giving his verdict on VAR.

Morgan said: “I hate VAR with a rare enthusiasm. I think it is one of the worst things ever seen in sports because it sucked all the joy out of watching football. Every single great goal now, we all have to wait five minutes to see if it counts or not, and then someone’s nostril might mean it doesn’t.

“And in this case has there ever been a situation where three different times VAR should have said this is not a goal? Probably four, if you include the handball that we later established.

“The ball clearly went out. The foul was clearly a foul. Joelinton put both hands on the back of Gabriel and knocked him over. Clearly, it was offside. Clearly, you could see a handball as well. Four different reasons […] and none of them get given because VAR is such a stupid system that none of it gets given.”

McCoist came back at Morgan and said: “Piers, I agree with your verdict on VAR. It’s driving me crazy.

“However, I think the keywords are ‘clear’ and ‘obvious’. I don’t think any of them are clear and obvious, and I genuinely believe it. If you put me in a corner I do think it was a foul. It was a shove right -”

Morgan replied: “So immediately you’ve disagreed with yourself. Clearly, it was a foul. Everybody knows it was a foul. Clearly from the still photographs you’ve seen that ball is about six inches out of play.

“Clearly it’s offside, but apparently VAR doesn’t have the technology now to tell us if a ball has gone out, or whether there’s been a blatant foul, or whether there’s a clear and obvious offside, or whether it’s a clear handball. To which my answer would be, ‘What’s the point of VAR?’
“It sucks all the joy out of it and it can make four decisions on one incident.”

MAILBOX: Arsenal had one shot on target; VAR is not the problem here