Newcastle United defender Dan Burn has delivered a damning verdict on the latest VAR controversy to engulf English football, after a contentious offside call chalked off a goal for Manchester City in their Carabao Cup semi-final first leg.
The Incident That Sparked Fury
The flashpoint occurred at St James' Park on Tuesday night during Manchester City's 2-0 victory. New signing Antoine Semenyo, who had opened the scoring, thought he had doubled his tally shortly after by flicking home from a corner.
Despite no appeals from the Newcastle defence, the Video Assistant Referee system intervened, flagging a potential offside against Erling Haaland. Officials ruled that Haaland, while in an offside position, had impeded Newcastle's Malick Thiaw, denying him a chance to play the ball.
Burn's Blunt Assessment
While accepting the technical correctness of the decision, Dan Burn expressed the growing frustration felt by players and fans. "I do think it is the right decision, I just don't like the subjective offside," the Magpies defender stated.
"It's either offside, or it's not. We don't want to see that, but by the letter of the law it should be disallowed," Burn added, highlighting the conflict between the strict rules and the spirit of the game.
Fallout and Reactions
The disallowed goal has ignited a fresh debate about the use of VAR in football. Semenyo himself was adamant, declaring: "The second goal should have stood!" despite his dream start to life at City with two goals in two games.
Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola claimed the controversial call made his team "stronger," as they went on to seal the win with a second goal from Rayan Cherki. However, midfielder Bernardo Silva revealed lingering frustration, noting: "It should have been 3-0 but we are quite used to this at the moment."
Former City defender Micah Richards was also highly critical on punditry duty. "VAR wasn't brought in for this reason here," he argued. "This is anti-goal which they said they weren't going to do... This for me is re-refereeing the game."
The incident adds to a growing list of VAR grievances for Manchester City, following a recent admission by an independent panel that they were wrongly denied a penalty in a previous 2-1 defeat at Newcastle.
