Leeds' VAR Mistakes Cost Sub-4 Minutes in Penalty Shootout
[Getty Images] Leeds United should have been awarded a penalty in their 1-0 loss at home to Sunderland on 3 March, according to the Premier League's Key Match Incidents (KMI) Panel. The game was goalless in the 16th minute when Daniel Farke's side were awarded a corner. As the ball was delivered from the right, Sunderland's Luke O'Nien held back Pascal Struijk.
The KMI Panel unanimously voted that it was a mistake by referee Stuart Attwell and there should have been a video assistant referee (VAR) intervention from Paul Tierney. It noted that O'Nien is "not looking at the ball, places his arms around the neck of Struijk in a clear non-footballing action and stops the Leeds United attacker from progressing towards goal". After the game, Farke was furious that his side had not been awarded the spot-kick.
"It's not even a question," Farke said. "What was VAR doing? "It's tough to understand how this is not checked.
If the referee watched it back he would say all day long it's a penalty. "It's more for VAR, it's difficult for the referee to see. " It is the first VAR error logged against Leeds this season.
Leeds went on to lose the game through a 70th-minute VAR penalty after Ethan Ampadu was penalised for handball inside the area. This was also supported by a 5:0 vote. The KMI Panel said: "Ampadu clearly knocks the ball away with his arm in a secondary motion and the VAR intervention was supported as correct.