Newcastle winger Anthony Gordon has weighed in on the VAR debate by issuing the Premier League with an ultimatum.
After being denied a penalty in the Magpies’ 3-2 defeat at Manchester United on Wednesday night, Gordon believes VAR should be scrapped if it’s not going to be improved.
Top-flight clubs will vote on getting rid of the VAR system for the 2024/25 season in a meeting next month with 14 teams needing to vote in favour for the motion to pass.
And England international Gordon has been left in two minds over whether it should stay after Newcastle had a first half penalty call go against them when they were trailing 1-0.
The 23-year-old darted into the box, where he was caught on the Achilles by Sofyan Amrabat, who then bundled the ex-Everton forward to the ground.
Gordon was left with a huge hole in the back of his sock, but to his shock, referee Rob Jones was not sent to the pitchside monitor by VAR.
And Gordon was quick to vent his anger to Sky Sports following the five-goal thriller which has seen Newcastle drop to seventh spot – level on points with eighth-placed United heading into the final weekend of the campaign.
He said: “[My ankle’s] really sore. I’m not too sure how good my ankle will be.
“But I’ve watched the incident back, it’s a clear penalty. I don’t mind the referee getting it wrong on the pitch because it’s a difficult decision, things happen really quickly.
“But I don’t understand what the point of VAR is then, because it’s there to correct mistakes.
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“He [Amrabat] goes down my Achilles and pushes me in the back, and then Casemiro comes and gets the ball.
“But it’s two fouls before that, I honestly don’t see the point in it.
“I knew straight away [I was fouled], that’s why I didn’t appeal, because I thought, ‘I don’t mind the referee not giving it, it’s fast, but I’ll wait for the VAR to check.’
“You can see me telling my teammates, ‘Don’t worry, it’s a penalty’, and then we carry on and I’m just like, ‘I’ve got no sock left, so how is that possible?’
“I don’t understand the point of it, I really don’t.”
Commenting on whether VAR should be scrapped or not, Gordon remarked: “It’s a big decision, I’m actually quite fond of it.
“I’m fond of the idea, it should be a thing that works in the league, but it’s not, there’s constantly too many mistakes.
“We’ve missed too many chances to blame anyone else, but we could go 1-0 up [level at 1-1] and then the game changes.
“It’s clear and obvious mistake, I don’t know how you can get it wrong, so you either get rid of it, or get better. It’s very simple.”
Newcastle boss Eddie Howe was left equally as stunned by his side not being awarded a spot-kick, as he said in his post-match press conference: “Stonewall penalty.
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“I don’t know why VAR didn’t get involved.”
The result means that Newcastle have to claim all three points away at Brentford on Sunday to guarantee themselves of a top-seven finish to secure at least Europa Conference League football.
And should Chelsea lose at home to Bournemouth, they would then achieve Europa League qualification at their expense.