Chelsea news: Ex-Fifa official demands major VAR change as controversial Trevoh Chalobah footage analysed
Keith Hackett has claimed referees should review more incidents on the pitchside monitor after Burnley were denied a penalty in their 4-0 loss to Chelsea on Saturday (5 March).
Speaking exclusively to Football Insider, the ex-Fifa and Premier League referee delivered his verdict after analysing Trevoh Chalobah’s challenge on Maxwel Cornet.
As shown on the BBC’s Match of the Day programme, Cornet was played in behind the Chelsea defence before he was brought down by Chalobah.
The referee waved play on and VAR did not feel the need to intervene.
“We have ones that are difficult to detect and that is this illegal use of the arm on the opponent,” Hackett said after analysing the footage with Football Insider correspondent Connor Whitley.
“It was more like a holding offence. I think he was lucky to get away with no penalty kick not being awarded.
“What happens in these situations is the forward gets the wrong side of the defender and the defender is at risk. I think there was a fairly good shout for a penalty kick.
“VAR didn’t come in and help the referee on that one. Let’s consider this, I think we’ve got to change the way we operate VAR in England.
“We’ve got to adopt the same procedure as we do in America. On an incident like that, that’s iffy, the referee would look and have an opporunity to see it on the screen.
“Fro the referee’s position, he’s not got a prayer. He’s in a good position but the action is blocked.
“We’ve got to get over this idea that when a referee goes to the monitor, he’s going to go with the VAR. I would like that referee to go and have a look.
“If he went to the screen and says it’s not a penalty then that’s a better outcome than leaving us in the dark.”
In other news, ‘unhappy’ Romelu Lukaku could now be frozen out after what has been spotted at Chelsea.