The Premier League have released a statement regarding the lengthy six-minute VAR check over Nottingham Forest's second goal against West Ham United on Sunday.
In a crucial battle in the race for the Champions League, Forest took a one-goal lead into the second half after Morgan Gibbs-White capitalised on an error by the Irons' defence. It seemed straightforward that the Reds had made it two when Nikola Milenkovic flicked home a free kick with half an hour remaining.
However, referee Sam Barrott was told by VAR Darren England to delay the restart as they checked whether or not Nicolas Dominguez was in an offside position. This check took a whopping six minutes and saw the VAR not use the new Semi-automated Offside Technology (SAOT) initially believed to be due to the amount of players in the area.
So instead, the lines were drawn and it was decided that Milenkovic was not in an offside position and Dominguez was, but not impacted on play meaning the goal was awarded. Explaining the delay behind the decision, the Premier League released a statement on their Match Centre X account.
This read: "The referee’s call of goal was checked and confirmed by VAR – with Milenkovic in an onside position and Domínguez in an offside position, but deemed not to be impacting on play. The semi-automated offside technology was not available to the VAR in this incident.
"There were also issues with the VAR communications to the on-field officials." Forest would concede a late goal from Jarrod Bowen to create a nervy last few minutes for the travelling supporters
Nuno Espirito Santo's men will qualify for a European competition no matter how next weekend's matches go. Seventh place is guaranteed at the minimum which would secure Conference League football.
Sixth would bag the Europa League while the top five shall enter the Champions League along with the winner of Manchester United vs Tottenham Hotspur who face each other in the Europa League final on Wednesday night.