Noel Gallagher hits out at VAR in Premier League and “disastrous” Howard Webb
Noel Gallagher has hit out at the use of video assisted refereeing (VAR) in the Premier League and has also called Professional Game Match Officials Limited (PGMOL) chief Howard Webb “disastrous”.
Gallagher, a Manchester City fan, saw his team lose to Arsenal 1-0 over the weekend. He spoke to talkSPORT about Tottenham’s 2-1 win to Liverpool last week after Luis Diaz was incorrectly ruled offside following a VAR blunder.
The referring association, PGMOL, have since apologised to Liverpool, releasing an audio to talk through how the error occurred as part of the greater transparency PGMOL Chief Howard had previously pledged.
Gallagher, however, had some strong opinions about Webb and VAR.
When asked about the blunder at Liverpool last week, Gallagher said of Webb: “All I will say is, this guy Howard Webb, since he’s been brought in to sort stuff out it’s been nothing short of an absolute disaster.
“Nobody wants it VAR, it kills the vibe in the ground, they cannot get it right.
“For the life of me, I cannot understand why they don’t use the same system they use in the Champions League, I can’t understand why [Premier League clubs voted against it].
“It seems to be really definitive and fan friendly, I imagine the system here will get thrown out. What about the 60,000 in the ground? If football isn’t about the fans it’s not about anything.”
Gallagher then joked, “the only good thing about it is that it was against Liverpool.”
In other news, Oasis topped a new BBC chart ranking the most streamed albums from the ’90s.
The Official Most Streamed Albums of the ’90s chart, which is being shared to celebrate National Album Day next week (October 14), features the Top 40 most-streamed albums from that decade, based on UK streams, as compiled by the Official Charts Company. It will air on BBC Radio 2 between 1-3pm on October 14; the programme is available to listen to now on BBC Sounds here.
Oasis earned the two top two slots in the chart with ‘(What’s The Story) Morning Glory’ at number one and ‘Definitely Maybe’ at number two. ‘Be Here Now’, the bands third studio album, took the 18th slot on the list. The band’s ’90s Britpop rivals, Blur, meanwhile, didn’t make the top twenty.