Hackett wants major VAR change after Man United-Fernandes footage emerges
Keith Hackett has called for a big change to VAR after footage emerged of Manchester United midfielder Bruno Fernandes at half-time of their Europa League final defeat to Villarreal.
Speaking exclusively to Football Insider, the ex-FIFA referee has insisted that decisions are taking too long to reach a verdict, and he has proposed a solution to the predicament.
A 22-second clip of Fernandes complaining to the officials at half-time of the showpiece event was uploaded to YouTube, appearing to show the Portuguese international complaining about the length of time taken by the VAR to check incidents in the first half.
Reflecting on the footage, Hackett told Football Insider correspondent Connor Whitley: “Fernandes and his complaints about VAR…don’t worry about your time on VAR, Fernandes.
“Because let me tell you this; goalkeepers holding the ball for longer than six seconds goes unpunished, free-kicks take an awful lot of time, as do goal-kicks and throw-ins.
“Individually, all those seconds lost are going to the VAR. The reason we don’t see that time lost is because play is continuing, we’ve got something to look at.
“When we’ve got VAR in the stadium, as a player or whatever, you’re going ‘Well, ‘I’ve scored a wonderful goal here and I’ve got to wait and wait and wait before I can celebrate’.
“So either way I sympathise with his comments, that I do think at times it’s taking too long to get to the decisions.
“I have the view that if it takes longer than 30 seconds to have another look, then forget it. It’s not clear and obvious.”
Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s side lost the Europa League final 11-10 on penalties, after a 1-1 draw with La Liga outfit Villarreal.
The Norwegian is yet to win a major trophy with the north-west giants since his appointment as manager in December 2018.
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