Mark Clattenburg accuses Ange Postecoglou of sour grapes after VAR comment

Mark Clattenburg has reacted to Ange Postecoglou’s repeated criticism of VAR, with the former Premier League referee claiming that the Tottenham manager’s complaints are self-serving.

The Tottenham Hotspur boss has been very consistent regarding the topic of VAR since arriving at N17, making it clear that he is not in favour of the changes that have been made to the game.

Postecoglou has repeatedly talked about the fact that one cannot celebrate goals any longer as managers and players need to wait and see if it will be ruled out by VAR.

It is a topic that the Australian is clearly passionate about, but even he acknowledges now that the technology is here to stay as we have gone too far to roll back the changes.

Ange Postecoglou's sarcasm goes to another level when talking about VAR ????

'Everyone loves it. Everyone wants it. Who am I to complain about it?' pic.twitter.com/BJhN5ljujy

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Mark Clattenburg is cynical about Ange Postecoglou’s VAR complaints

Former Premier League referee Mark Clattenburg acknowledges that the Tottenham boss does have a point about the delays and about not being able to celebrate a goal.

However, he suggested that Postecoglou’s frustrations are rooted in the fact that results and refereeing decisions are not going his side’s way, suggesting that the Australian might be complaining if Spurs are doing well.

Clattenburg told TBR Football: “It’s interesting, the comments from Ange Postecoglou and how he fell out of love with the VAR. It’s always the case when a team is not playing very well, you don’t seem to get the luck from certain refereeing decisions.

“We can look back at – for example – Nottingham Forest last year, where they were on the wrong end of many, many decisions and you always feel that everything is against you, but when you’re playing well like Nottingham Forest are this season, then VAR doesn’t seem to be an issue.

“However, he does have a point, certainly. Watching goals being scored and players can’t celebrate is not a great thing, it’s not a great image. Yes, Tottenham Hotspur have had some poor decisions this season, but most teams have. He has a point, it does suck the love out of watching the Premier League with how long it’s taking and delays for certain decisions.”

Mark Clattenburg explains why VAR is not to blame for wrong decisions

Clattenburg insisted that pundits and fans are wrong to blame the technology when they feel that the right decisions are not reached in certain instances.

He suggested that the main issue has to do with the subjective nature of some decisions like fouls, which are not black and white like offside calls are.

The former Premier League official added: “Everybody uses the word VAR. We’ve got to understand that it’s not technology, it’s still a human being making a very subjective call, and that’s where the inconsistencies lie when we have subjective decisions. Is it a foul or not? Is it a penalty or not? These are the ones that normally create confusion, frustration, anger.

“I think when the factual decisions (such as) offside, a clear foul outside the box which was given as a penalty, ball over the line, all of these factual decisions don’t seem to have the same issues, but there are so many inconsistencies – especially in the Premier League where some weeks it’s a foul, some weeks it’s not.”

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