Derby County incidents heighten the need for VAR

Wayne Rooney’s post match comments after the Swans beat Derby County at the weekend was never likely to end quickly and the Rams boss his now set to face an FA charge following his comments that Tim Robinson should be “fined and banned” for failing to give his side a penalty in the closing minutes.

Of course, Rooney was not in admittance that the Swans had a stonewall penalty turned down in the first half as well as a pretty blatant red card being waved away during an eventful first half where Robinson did award a penalty to the visitors for a clumsy foul by Andy Fisher.

Pretty much everyone in the stadium can admit that the referee was particularly awful at the weekend but equally bad for both sides as the Swans recorded a third successive win on an afternoon which saw Derby move a step closer to a drop to League One for next season.

“I think everyone in the stadium agrees (it was a penalty), the Swansea manager, the Swansea staff, the Swansea fans, Derby players, staff, fans, everyone saw it was a clear penalty apart from the four officials,’ Rooney ranted after the game.

“I have said it time and time again. I understand it is difficult to give it when it is a tight one.

“When it is a clear obvious foul and penalty it leaves a lot of questions I have to ask the officials. I hope the referee gets banned and fined because that is not good enough.”

Rooney did get some sympathy from former referee Keith Hackett who wrote on Twitter “Watched the Derby County incident and no wonder Wayne Rooney was unhappy. Penalty kick for me, the Derby player was bundled over. A foul, a penalty kick.”

Watched the Derby County incident and no wonder Wayne Rooney was unhappy. PK for me the Derby player was bundled over. A foul, a PK

— KEITH HACKETT (@HACKETTREF) April 10, 2022

All the focus from the game appears to be on the late penalty incident but bypassing the earlier incidents that could easily have seen the Swans open up a three goal advantage and certainly a strong case for a man advantage for a large period of the game.

Little has been said of the foul by Allsop in the first half and the penalty claim for the Swans that would have certainly been a penalty had their been VAR available in the ground.

“You can ask what do we do, do you get VAR in but the officials are looking at VAR on the screen and they are still getting decisions wrong. So I don’t know where we go,”  added Rooney in his post match comments.

It is certainly time now that VAR is settling into some kind of routine that we look to introduce this in the Championship given the number of decisions being made wrong week on week but it does also need a balance from the likes of Rooney who has to accept that whilst he may have had a late decision, the game could easily have been out of sight had the referee been competent enough in the first half.

We need to move on and bring VAR in at the earliest possible opportunity but we also need to enhance the standard of refereeing at the same time.