Expressing his frustration, Aberdeen's Leighton Clarkson has insisted that he is firmly in favour of scrapping VAR after another controversial decision deprived the Dons of a late winning goal against Livingston.
Aberdeen believed they secured a hard-fought 1-0 victory in West Lothian when Bojan Miovski scored an acrobatic goal in the 92nd minute. However, after a VAR review, defender Angus MacDonald was deemed offside from Clarkson's initial free-kick delivery.
The 22-year-old was stunned at the outcome and since then Aberdeen have had to come out with a strong statement questioning how the match referees came to that conclusion after the Scottish FA admitted that they had to "guess" because the Hawkeye system, intended to provide VAR officials with precise offsides rulings, was malfunctioning.
That was the final straw for Clarkson, with the Aberdeen squad in unanimous agreement that they would rather see the back of the technology because it's hindering the enjoyment of the game.
Asked if he'd like to see it scrapped, the Dons midfielder said: “100 percent. As footballers, we grew up watching last-minute winners and goals.
“Even now, you don’t know why the game is being stopped for something 30 seconds before.”
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“It is frustrating," he continued while slamming the process.
“We are all told at the start of the season how VAR is supposed to work, and every game, I would say, is worse.
“Referees aren’t really refereeing the games, and there are calls where before VAR it was just a case of get on with it and play football.
“It takes the fans’ excitement out of the game as well. We scored late on against Livingston. It was a poor game and they (the fans) were waiting for that one moment. They have celebrated and it is offside by a toe – if it even was offside.
“These things shouldn’t really be happening.”
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Clarkson is still furious at the decision to deny Miovski a goal during a 3-3 thriller against Motherwell in February, and claims Aberdeen have been dealt a rough hand by VAR multiple times this season.
On that Miovski disallowed goal, he fumed: “Still to this day I don’t know how it was offside, but that is where the line has been drawn.”
He added: “We’ve had a lot of decisions go against us this season. Yes, you are going to gain and not gain at times, but the amount of times we have been at a disadvantage over VAR is quite scary to be honest.
“VAR is not good. It is not improving – it is getting worse. It takes the excitement out of Scottish football and all football. I would like referees doing their own jobs.”
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