West Ham's Antonio: VAR 'needs to be binned'
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On the wrong end of a VAR decision last Saturday against Chelsea, West Ham's Michail Antonio says in no uncertain terms the system needs to be scrapped.
The 32-year-old Jamaica forward railed against the system on the latest edition of the Footballer's Football Podcast on the BBC.
"It was a madness, that's what I am going to call it," Antonio said of the decision that went against Hammers in the 2-1 loss to the Blues. "An actual madness. I have said this many times. It needs to be binned."
West Ham thought they found a 90th-minute equalizer against Chelsea when Maxwell Cornet found the back of the net to make it 2-2. But VAR eventually ruled no goal due to contact made with Blues goalkeeper Edouard Mendy by Jarrod Bowan in the lead-up.
On Monday, PGMOL, the referees' governing body, admitted that call and a call to deny a goal to Newcastle against Crystal Palace were mistakes.
Newcastle striker Callum Wilson, who co-hosts the podcast with Antonio, said an admission of error days later is worthless.
"It's no good apologizing on the Monday because you've got the decision wrong on the Saturday," Wilson said. "That's cost us two points. Come the end of the season, two points could be the difference between a team staying up and going down. It's not going to go away. I can't see them getting rid of it at all so we've just got to learn to live with it but use it properly."