Rio Ferdinand has questioned the use of VAR after Glenn Murray’s late winner for Brighton against Crystal Palace in the FA Cup.
There was a suggestion that Murray had handled the ball on its way into the Palace net three minutes before time which sent Brighton into the fourth round.
Referee Andre Marriner didn’t review the incident and television replays did show that only the striker’s thigh made contact with the ball and not his arm.
Rio Ferdinand has questioned the use of VAR after Glenn Murray’s late winner for Brighton
Murray’s winner against Crystal Palace initially appeared to come off the striker’s arm
Although replays showed that the ball did in fact hit Murray’s thigh instead before going in
But Ferdinand, who was working as a pundit on BT Sport, suggested that there wasn’t a definitive answer.
He said: ‘You’ll have all the fans from Crystal Palace saying why wasn’t the other angle looked at? We’ve got the Palace fans in the away end here who were asking us whether it was handball or not and the pictures we saw were kind of inconclusive in some respects.
‘I thought initially it was definitely from off his knee but if we had another angle maybe you’d be able to see the other side if it’s off his arm as well. The debate is still there. We’ve got human error, we’ve got the visuals and the different pictures after and it’s still inconclusive.’
Brighton players celebrate after Murray’s goal secured a 2-1 victory over derby rivals Palace
Andre Marriner was the man in the middle during VAR’s debut at the Amex on Monday night
Monday night’s Cup tie was the first time VAR was available to officials for a competitive game in English football.
Former Manchester United defender Ferdinand also said that he wants everything in place to help officials before video assistance is used regularly in domestic football.
He added: ‘It has to be cleared up completely and there can’t be left no grey areas. If you’ve got the actual replays there that should just be “that’s it”.
‘Everyone should get all of the different pictures for them to make a decision as once and final that everyone can agree on but when you don’t get certain pictures and people at home are saying “why are the people, the powers at be getting the right pictures?”‘
The VAR watched the game away from the stadium, with a bank of TV feeds from the match
There was no feed available of the video review either for TV viewers or those in the ground