Ruud van Nistelrooy won’t be too pleased to hear the new introduction coming to the fifth round of the FA Cup.
Leicester City were knocked out by Manchester United last weekend in controversial style as Harry Maguire’s winner was clearly scored from an offside position.
Van Nistelrooy slammed the decision to allow Maguire’s goal and Foxes fans felt they had been ‘cheated’ out of going to extra time at least.
VAR wasn’t used in the fourth round but will be in use from now until the end of the competition.
It isn’t just VAR that’s coming to the FA Cup either and it will be something that Leicester would’ve wished was in place earlier.
Manchester United's English defender #05 Harry Maguire scores the team's second goal during the English FA Cup fourth round football match between ...
Photo by OLI SCARFF/AFP via Getty Images
Football fans have become accustomed to the semi-automated offside system after it’s use at 2022 World Cup and in Champions League fixtures.
Now, for the first time in English football, the PGMOL, FA and Premier League have confirmed that the technology will be used at all seven top flight grounds in the fifth round of the FA Cup.
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Designed to ‘enhance the speed and efficiency’ of calling offsides, tests have taken place over the last two seasons and if proved to be a success, it could be used in the Premier League for the 2025/26 campaign.
Semi-automated offsides were initially meant to be trialled in October but those plans had been delayed.
Premier League claim that they have got every offside decision correct
The news of the semi-automated offsides come as no comfort to Van Nistelrooy and Leicester and they and Birmingham City were two of the clubs to question the decision to wait until the fifth round to introduce any technology.
Despite the errors the Premier League have claimed that they are getting better and recent data published by the governing body has suggested that have got 100 per cent of the offside calls correct this season,
Furthermore, there have been 13 VAR errors from 70 interventions this term, compared with 20 from 61 at the same stage last season.
2023/2024 2024/25
VAR Interventions in Premier League 61 70
VAR Errors after intervention in Premier League 20 13
Premier League chief football officer Tony Scholes told Sky Sports last week that they had been developing a new system that he has full confidence in.
He said: “The system that we’ve adopted, we believe it to be the best system.
“We believe it to be the most accurate and the most future-proof system as well. I have to confess, given the difficulties that we had over the first few months of the season, I had severe doubts about this but the progress made over the last four to six weeks has been significant.”