Nottingham Forest were furious over the weekend when Everton’s Ashley Young got away with three clear penalty decisions, allowing the Toffees to secure a much-needed victory.
Both Nottingham Forest and Everton are fighting for their Premier League lives, and their work has been made considerably more difficult after both clubs received point punishments for breaking Financial Fair Play rules.
The two teams played on Sunday, and Everton won 2-0. However, Nottingham Forest had every reason to be upset at full-time when the referee and VAR failed to award them a penalty on three different occasions, all involving the same player, Ashley Young.
Following the match, Nottingham Forest issued a statement via X denouncing the PGMOL’s choice to use a Luton supporter on VAR, despite the fact that Luton Town is also fighting for relegation.
Nottingham Forest has received a lot of criticism for speaking out.
It was a controversial move, but they aren’t backing down.
Nottingham Forest has requested the audio from Sunday’s VAR and has issued another statement expressing their reservations over the VAR selection on Sunday.
Several Newcastle fans responded to Forest’s post on X, expressing their support for Nottingham Forest’s crusade, stating it is nice to see a club finally taking a position.
We hope that more clubs raise their voices and demand the PGMOL take note.
Newcastle has been the recipient of several horrific VAR decisions, but to be fair, we’ve also been on the receiving end, with certain things going our way that would not normally happen.
However, few people believe that VAR is currently fit for purpose, and when you consider that officials with “contextual bias,” as Nottingham Forest put it, can still officiate games and make big calls like the three we saw on Sunday, it is clear that it needs to be reviewed.
It is not limited to the English game, as Newcastle can attest when Paris Saint-Germain took advantage of a poor VAR call against the Magpies in the Champions League, costing Newcastle a spot in the knockout stages.
We appreciate Forest’s refusal to back down, and we hope that other clubs will join them in this struggle. It’s the only way to make things change.
