Man United news: Ex-Fifa official demands law change as controversy analysed
Keith Hackett has called for a 30-second time limit on VAR decisions after a lengthy delay for an offside call at Man United on Saturday.
Speaking exclusively to Football Insider, the ex-Fifa and Premier League official said a change is needed “for the credibility and flow of the game.”
As pictured by The Times’ Tom Williams on Twitter (12 February), six players were caught offside during an offensive free-kick in the second half of United’s 1-1 draw with Southampton.
The Red Devils scored from the free-kick so the decision was double-checked by VAR – a process which took approximately a minute.
Hackett suspects the delay could have been down to technological problems but urged officials to speed up regardless.
“This could be the delay in the technology,” he told Football Insider. “It may have taken time to pull up the screen and draw the lines.
“We are getting better decisions out of VAR but the delay is too long. There is a long pregnant pause after lots of offside decisions which takes the momentum out of the game. They have got to get quicker.
“In that incident, it took about a minute to come to the decision which was far too long. That can’t be right.
“The training and development of VAR should be to get to these decisions within 30 seconds. For credibility and the flow of the game there needs to be a time limit on it. That should be 30 seconds.”
In other news, a pundit has claimed Man United are ‘dishevelled’ and ‘a mess’ after ‘worrying’ reveal.