Alan Shearer sensationally tears into Howard Webb after being personally embarrassed by VAR

Alan Shearer ripped into VAR and Premier League officials for disallowing Josh King’s goal against Chelsea, which PGMOL chief Howard Webb was forced to apologise for after yet another decisive error

Alan Shearer has torn into the Video Assistant Referee (VAR) while slamming the « bull**** » decision against Fulham. Saturday’s early Premier League kick-off saw Fulham open the scoring in the 22nd minute at Stamford Bridge, with Josh King netting against west London rivals Chelsea.

However, following a VAR review, referee Robert Jones was summoned to the monitor, where he decided to disallow the 18-year-old’s goal. Jones declared to the entire stadium that Rodrigo Muniz had made a « careless challenge » and stepped on Trevoh Chalobah’s foot during the build-up, a call many viewers considered extremely harsh.

To add insult to injury for Fulham, the Blues’ opener in their 2-0 win came nine minutes into eight minutes of added time at the end of the first half.

READ MORE: Fulham star risks wrath of Premier League chiefs with furious rant on VAR controversyREAD MORE: Match of the Day pundit rips into VAR after ‘ridiculous’ Chelsea controversy

Referees chief Howard Webb has since contacted Fulham and acknowledged the decision was incorrect. He admitted the call to disallow the goal did not reach the high bar of a VAR intervention as it was not a clear and obvious error by the referee, and should have gone down as a ‘referees’ call’ instead.

Referees’ body PGMOL consequently replaced VAR culprit Michael Salisbury with John Brooks for Liverpool vs Arsenal on Sunday. Even so, Webb’s admission has done little to calm the fury towards VAR only three matches into the season, with Newcastle icon Shearer tearing into the officials’ judgement.

Speaking on The Rest Is Football podcast, he vented: « Honestly, tell me, you have two professional referees – allegedly – who are sat in the VAR room watching screens, two of them, who are meant to know the game and who are meant to be very very good at their job.

« And you’ve got a referee on the pitch who saw the incident clearly and didn’t give it but then thinks, ‘Actually I’ve made a huge error here, the guys have sent me to the screen and I’m gonna overturn my decision.’

« I mean, we can swear on here but not on Match of the Day, what the f*** are they thinking? You’re not going to re-referee, you’re not going to interfere and it’s only for the clear and obvious. Three things.

« Where have those three things gone? It’s bulls***. What has happened to the game? Tell me, what’s happened to those three things, please.

« Howard Webb, you’re in charge, tell us what has happened to those three things because every single game you’re re-refereeing and you’re interfering, and you’re overturning decisions which are not clear and obvious.

« Now please explain to us what has gone wrong from when you announced it to now. And then to rub salt in the wounds because of that extra time they’re looking at the screens, Chelsea then go and score in the time added because of the s*** decisions. »

Shearer went on to add: « I was angry, like every Fulham player and fan and Marco Silva. You could tell he was just thinking what on earth has the game come to when those goals are being disallowed. »

Fulham manager Marco Silva branded the decision as « unbelievable » whilst speaking to TNT Sports after the match. He said: « How you disallow a goal like that is unbelievable. We have meetings with referees and people in charge, we all want to win.

« VAR is not here to re-referee the game. I would prefer not to say something more because I would be punished. I want to be on the touchline next week to help my team, I don’t want to be fined. But it has been a difficult start to the season with some decisions. »

Ironically, Shearer presented some of the Premier League’s promotional videos explaining VAR when it first launched back in 2019. In what will undoubtedly now be an embarrassing moment for the pundit personally, an old clip shows him reeling off the benefits of VAR, one of which was supposed to be “minimum interference.”

He had said: « VAR is in the Premier League this season and it will help our referees get more decisions correct. Let’s be clear, we won’t see 100% accuracy. Some decisions will be subjective and not everyone will agree, but the VAR will be checking every key decision.

« The Premier League is setting a high bar for VAR involvement. The philosophy is minimum interference, maximum benefit. Keeping the pace and passion we all know and love. »

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