Sunderland And VAR: From Wembley To Wolves!

LONDON, ENGLAND - MAY 24: Sunderland Captain Dan Neil lifts the trophy and celebrates promotion to the Premier League with Regis Le Bris, head coach / manager of Sunderland and team mates during the Sky Bet Championship Play-Off Final match between Sheffield United and Sunderland at Wembley Stadium on May 24, 2025 in London, England. (Photo by Marc Atkins/Getty Images) | Getty Images Another debatable point from Dan Ballard’s sending off — apart from the ‘hair tug law’ itself — was the intervention of VAR. At that point in the match, Sunderland were leading 0-1, were in control and looking like we were going to cash in against the bottom and already relegated side in the table.

The sending off changed all that and from then on in, it was a case of trying to hold on with what we had against a team with an extra man. The referee had no intention of looking at the foul until he was directed to do so by VAR, and he then had no choice but to follow the law as it’s laid down and to send Ballard off. It changed the course of the game without any doubt, and has added further fuel to the never-ending VAR debate.

If the fan polls across the footballing community are to be believed, most fans don’t like VAR or believe it brings anything to the game. The majority would like to see it scrapped, and vocal pundits such as Alan Shearer agree with them. My own opinion is that I agree with all of this.

I’ve always hated VAR for, among other things, the disallowing of a plethora of goals because someone’s fingernail or nostril hair is offside. It’s the party pooper during the best moment of a game; the moment when a goal is scored and the ground erupts in the pure spontaneous celebration that nothing in life replicates. We’ve seen that taken away from fans up and down the country and killed more effectively than by my other pet hate: goal celebration music blasting over a PA system.