🎥 VAR Gate. The Shining Light Has Been Revealed... 👀

Gm football fans. Route One here.

Today’s briefing is a ~7 min read:

• 🎥 VAR-gate: the shining light has been revealed amongst the chaos

• 🥱 United takeover: Ratcliffe’s proposal’s titled “snooze-fest”

• 🧩 The Puzzle Section: can you name these players who scored goals that VAR would’ve disallowed?

RESULTS

🗞️ Morning Brief

🧐 VAR-gate…

The voice of reason in Liverpool VAR saga… 😬

The football trial of the season has begun…

PGMOL vs Jurgen Klopp. Understandably, the Red’s boss is calling for a rematch of their away fixture against Spurs.

Rule L18 does suggest that the Premier League board has the power to order a league match to be replayed.

So a rematch is possible. But to be honest, it’s highly unlikely.

VAR protocol, which is part of the Laws of the Games, states: "In principle, a match is not invalidated because of: wrong decision(s) involving the VAR (as the VAR is a match official)."

I mean, if that’s not black and white, I don’t know what is…

It sets a dangerous precedent, and the Premier League knows this.

Could Wolves then ask to replay their game against Man United after they were wrongly denied an penalty through a bad VAR decision in injury time?

Amongst the chaos, the VAR operator who’s name has now been made public by The Telegraph has emerged as a voice of reason.

Ordinarily, 30-year-old Dutch computer engineer, Mo Abby, doesn’t speak during conversations between VARs and on-field officials.

Yet, he was the only one that spotted the mistake and insisted the game was “delayed”.

All eyes will be on PGMOL’s response to Klopp’s request - where we expect the response to be akin to a lazy breakup: “Sorry, Jurgen, it’s not you… it us.”

🧃Juicy Links…

• 😆 Jude Bellingham banters with Micha and Carragher after Real Madrid win. CBS Sports via YouTube

• 🐣 OddsOnFPL has his FPL team deleted after being accused of managing multiple teams. He was 2000th in the world! Via Twitter.

• 💀 Gary Neville Brands Manchester United a 'Graveyard for Players and Managers' TalkSport via YouTube

🥱 United takeover

The United takeover is becoming nothing short of a snooze-fest…

This week, as Sir Jim Ratcliffe loses his patience with the Glazers, he has attempted to break the deadlock… and pursuing a minority ownership of United.

What else do we know?

• Ratcliffe has lined up Paul Mitchell as United’s next transfer chief. Mitchell was previously AS Monaco’s sporting director.

• The new proposal will allow Glazers to own a significant shareholding in the club.

• Most importantly… this isn’t what the fans want.

📺 FIXTURES

Thursday, 5 October

Europa League on TNT Sports

Early kick-off - 5.45pm

• AEK Athens vs Ajax

• Aris Limassol vs Rangers

• Backa Topola vs Olympiacos

• Freiburg vs West Ham

• Marseille vs Brighton

• Rakow Czestochowa vs Sturm Graz

• Real Betis vs Sparta Prague

• Sporting vs Atalanta

Late kick-off - 8pm

• Hacken vs Karabakh

• Liverpool vs Union Saint Gilloise

• Maccabi Haifa vs Panathinaikos

• Molde vs Leverkusen

• Roma vs Servette

• Slavia Prague vs Sheriff

• Toulouse vs LASK

• Villarreal vs Rennes

💰 BIG-GAME PLAYER

The puzzle section

Ok, we couldn’t help ourselves… today’s quiz is on players who’s goals should have been disallowed by VAR.

We need the players name based on the situation… we’ll start with an easy one and get progressively harder.

1. Who scored the infamous “Hand of God” goal in 1986?

2. Who scored by kicking the ball against a Beach Ball in 2009?

3. Who scored with their hand for France against Ireland in 2009?

4. Who scored a scorpion kick in 2016 for United, despite being miles off side?

Wednesday’s answer:

1. How many current Premier League teams have won the Champions League/European Cups? 6

2. Which current Premier League team has won the most Champions Leagues/European Cups? Liverpool

3. Which current Premier League player has scored the most Champions League goals? Mo Salah

😆 MEME