Gary Neville, a former captain of Manchester United, replied to Nottingham Forest’s complaint to PGMOL regarding a decision in their Premier League loss to Brentford.
Gary Neville, the former captain of Manchester United, has called out Arsenal and Liverpool for creating a risky precedent with the PGMOL, which Nottingham Forest is also adopting.
Reports surfaced on Sunday afternoon stating that Forest had written to PGMOL chairman Howard Webb following Saturday night’s VAR failure to reverse Brentford’s equaliser thanks to Ivan Toney. Cameras on the ground caught Toney cleaning the disappearing spray and transferring it to the right to improve his position before the free kick was taken.
The counterattacker’s goal to tie the score was made possible by the move. The Bees ultimately emerged as 3-2 winners.
The referee reportedly informed the East Midlands club’s officials that Toney’s motion was outside the purview of VAR, meaning the ruling could not be reversed. This is reportedly not to Forest’s satisfaction, and they are requesting Webb’s opinion.
Neville attacked the notion of pursuing the case further with the PGMOL in response to the report. He tweeted: “It’s embarrassing when clubs write to the PGMOL! It was initiated and the standard for this stupidity was set by Liverpool and Arsenal.”
The Reds reportedly approached PGMOL in May 2023 to seek clarification on controversial decisions that they believed prevented Jurgen Klopp’s team from competing in the Champions League this season, according to The Telegraph. They were not happy that Tyrone Mings was not sent off for tackling the Dutchman during a 1-1 draw at Anfield, nor that Cody Gakpo’s goal was disallowed for offside.
After VAR’s disastrous performance in Liverpool’s 2-1 loss to Tottenham Hotspur in October of last year, the team released a statement condemning PGMOL. Luis Diaz scored a goal during the game, but it was mistakenly disallowed for offside.
“Liverpool Football Club acknowledges PGMOL’s admission of their failures last night,” the statement said. Sporting integrity was compromised because it is evident that the laws of the game were not correctly applied.
“We acknowledge the demands that match officials operate under, but the introduction and use of VAR is meant to lessen rather than increase these pressures. Therefore, it is unacceptable that there was no further involvement and that insufficient time was given for the right decision to be made.
It is particularly unacceptable that these shortcomings have already been labelled as “significant human error.” The review alone should determine all results, and it should do so in complete transparency.
This is critical for the validity of decision-making in the future because it affects all clubs and lessons are being applied to enhance procedures so that a situation like this one won’t happen again. Given the obvious need for escalation and resolution, we shall investigate our options in the interim.
Similar remarks in support of manager Mikel Arteta were made by Arsenal in November following his displeasure with a VAR call that went against his team during a loss to Newcastle United.
