There are no plans to reconfigure goalline technology in the Premier League, despite the system failing during the first game of the restart.
Aston Villa’s goalkeeper Ørjan Nyland carried the ball into his own net during the match against Sheffield United on Wednesday but no goal was given.
Hawk-Eye, which provides the service to the league, apologised for the failure, blaming a “level of occlusion that had never been seen before” in the 9,000 games during which the technology has been in operation.
No changes to the system are planned to prevent such a problem happening again, however, with the Premier League seeing the incident as a one-off.
More than a minute passed between Nyland carrying the ball over the line and Villa taking a free-kick at the opposing end, during which VAR could have intervened to overturn the error.
Footage during that period shows the referee, Michael Oliver, pointing to his watch, which would have notified him had the goalline technology been activated. It is understood Oliver and the VAR officials took on trust that the absence of any signal was a sign that there was nothing on which to act.
The Professional Game Match Officials Board referred to the “unique nature” of the incident in a statement: “Under the Ifab [International Football Association Board] protocol, the VAR is able to check goal situations. However due to the fact that the on-field match officials did not receive a signal, and the unique nature of that, the VAR did not intervene.”
The Premier League believes there is no case for action despite the incident having possibly significant ramifications at both ends of the table. Sheffield United could have moved into fifth had they won the match, while a point could yet prove vital in Villa’s battle against relegation.
According to the protocols for use of VAR defined by Ifab a match is not invalidated by the failure of VAR technology or goalline technology.
