Evangelos Marinakis has never been shy of giving his opinion on matters, and VAR is the latest topic of discussion for the Nottingham Forest owner.
Nottingham Forest have come into some trouble with the FA and VAR this season in the Premier League, which certainly hasn’t pleased Evangelos Marinakis.
One of the major incidents to come up this season involved Morgan Gibbs-White’s sending off against Brighton and Hove Albion.
Nuno Espirito Santo, Gibbs-White and Marinakis all faced bans after being punished by the FA for their reactions to the decision.
But the worst part is the decision was later reviewed by an independent panel and was deemed to have been the wrong decision.
Evangelos Marinakis is clearly still not happy with the current state of VAR, as he’s now called out for footballing bodies and wants change.
Evangelos Marinakis goes on VAR rant
Of course, VAR does have its benefits and has made some good decisions that wouldn’t have been made if the technology wasn’t in use.
However, we are seeing mistakes being made from referees themselves up in the booth when it comes to watching replays to make decisions. It becomes very un-footballing like, slowing down replays and showing a lack of understanding in certain situations.
This is something that Marinakis feels strongly about, as he spoke to Rob Dorsett on the matter recently.
“Yes. The other thing is, nowadays, in football, we have VAR. So, why do we have VAR? In order to double-check decisions that take place instantly and from different angles. A lot of times, you can make a mistake.
“But when you have all the time you need to watch from different angles, in a comfortable chair, and you can spend one minute, two minutes, three minutes, four minutes, even five minutes to watch it and watch it again, then it’s very difficult to accept a human mistake.
“Unfortunately, we have seen big mistakes take place with VAR. Being a human being, you are obliged to make mistakes. It’s natural to make mistakes.
“But when you see repeated mistakes from the same people, this is something that needs to be corrected, and needs to be corrected immediately. Authorities or organisations – the FA, it’s the Premier League, it’s UEFA, it’s FIFA – they have a duty to all of us to rectify all this.”
- READ MORE: What Nuno Espirito Santo has managed to do in 21 less games than Steve Cooper at Nottingham Forest
VAR incidents Nottingham Forest have faced in 2024
Nottingham Forest have been unfortunate with VAR at times this season, as every club has.
The Anthony Elanga penalty incident jumps out against Fulham. He went down under the challenge of Calvin Bassey in the penalty area, with the Fulham man clearly coming through the player to get the ball.
However, VAR deemed it not to be a penalty, which will have been partly down to the on-field decision.
It’s decisions like this that discredit VAR due to the consistency, as it’s the kind of penalty that we’ve seen given in other games elsewhere.
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