How can VAR be applied so wrongly by refs v Leicester?

Leicester City faced Brighton & Hove Albion on the weekend, losing out 2-1 due to plainly wrong refereeing decisions. Here is what you need to know.

When a supporter usually complains about refereeing decisions there are a few reasons. Firstly, inconsistency with previous matches. Second, harsh decisions. Finally, supporters tend to get annoyed for the sake of their team.

However, in the aftermath of the Brighton & Hove Albion match, Leicester City supporters and Brendan Rodgers will be left bemused with decisions for another reason.

Leicester City v Brighton: a quick review

Rodgers‘ Foxes were beaten 2-1 away from home again this season. The opening five games of our season to just two wins and three losses. A terrible start.

According to Understat, the King Power side also lost on expected goals. We created enough chances to only score 1.25 goals, where Brighton only created enough for 1.47 goals. In that case, Brighton were lucky to be ahead by a whole goal, and particularly lucky with refereeing decisions.

Another point of note comes from Sofascore. When Ademola Lookman was introduced for James Maddison, he would proceed to make four successful dribbles, the most of any player in a single match for the Foxes. Lookman must play and Maddison must be rested – it is as simple as that!

Bias or ineptitude?

There were three controversial official decisions throughout the course of the match which completely changed the result. We will go through each in turn.

Beginning with was the decisions to grant the ‘seagulls’ a penalty for a handball on Jannik Vestergaard. This was slotted home by Neal Maupay.

From video the incident is clear. Vestergaard is going to head the ball away so is trying to jump high, while Maupay is holding him down by the arm. This is clearly a foul.

Besides that, Shane Duffy wins the header since Vest cannot jump to block it. Duffy heads it into Vestergaard’s raised left arm. In this moment, the defender had no opportunity to react.

The on-field ref can make the mistake by not noticing the foul. It is the VAR ref who should have not allowed a penalty and instead given a foul. These are the rules. A clear and obvious error.

Next up was Lookman’s goal. This was ruled offside from a corner because Harvey Barnes was – get this – interfering with the keeper.

In this one he is in front of the ‘keeper but clearly not blocking the ‘keeper from making a save. VAR’s Peter Bankes chose to rule this offside somehow.

The third obvious error is once more down to Bankes of VAR. Wilfred Ndidi scored a header from a corner, but Barnes was ruled as offside as interfering with the goalie. For context, Barnes is near the goal but nowhere near the goalie or the goalscorer, and is in no way involved in the play. The decision by the former is plainly wrong.

The Premier League has got to explain how these decisions can be made so wrongly. There are only two possibilities, especially with the second disallowed goal.

Either the VAR ref Peter Bankes was heavily biased towards Brighton during the match, thus ignored the Maupay foul and made up an offside on Barnes, or he was utterly inept. Either one is disgraceful and should be punished.

I ask yourselves to join Foxes of Leicester on social media and answer the question: bias or ineptitude?