Dyche is furious but... Why VAR can't rule on wrongly awarded corners

Nottingham Forest's frustrating start to the season was compounded by a growing VAR debate after Casemiro's opening goal for Manchester United came from a corner that, according to Forest boss Sean Dyche, should have been a goal kick. This marks the second time in as many weeks that Forest has been victimized by a decisive, incorrect corner call.

Dyche was understandably irate, calling the situation "farcical." His frustration stems from the fact that this type of factual error—did the ball go out for a corner or a goal kick—is precisely what VAR was designed to prevent, yet it remains outside the system's purview.

The IFAB's stance: Avoiding endless delays

Coincidentally, the technical panels of the International Football Association Board (IFAB) recently discussed making corners reviewable following a suggestion from the Italian FA. Despite being a seemingly factual decision, the proposal was ultimately rejected for two key reasons:

1. Risk of endless delays: Reviewing every goal that results from a corner would require checking how the ball went out on approximately 10 corners per game. The panel determined that constantly reviewing every corner before it is taken would cause excessive and unacceptable delays, even if Dyche believes a check would only take five seconds.
2. Breaking a fundamental rule: Making corners reviewable would violate a core principle of Law Five, which states a referee cannot change a restart decision once play has already restarted (i.e., once the corner is taken). To maintain that law, every corner would need to be checked before it is kicked, leading back to the problem of lengthy delays.

While the IFAB is open to minor VAR expansions, such as reviewing second yellow cards, major changes like reviewing corners are opposed by influential figures like FA chief executive Mark Bullingham, who feels the system is "in a good place now."

MORE FROM FANATİK

Southgate finds 'higher purpose' and rules out management return

VAR controversy elsewhere

The debate over VAR's reach continued in other Premier League fixtures as well:

• Senesi's red card escapes: Bournemouth defender Marcos Senesi has been judged by the Premier League's Key Match Incidents (KMI) Panel to have wrongly escaped two red cards this season—one for a denied review and one for a referee rejecting a VAR recommendation at the monitor.
• West Ham's time-added advantage: West Ham fans endured a three-minute, 11-second delay for a penalty decision against Newcastle to be overturned. However, the resulting five minutes of added time proved beneficial as they scored an own goal just before the half-time whistle.

For now, officials and pundits, including Alan Shearer, agree with the IFAB's cautious approach. While Shearer empathized with Dyche, he stressed the solution must be better officiating, not further interrupting the flow of the game: "I wouldn't like to get VAR involved as it is stopping and starting as it is. I wouldn't encourage that, but I would encourage the officials to do their job properly and get it right."

Would you like to know more about the specific instances where VAR has intervened successfully this season?