Paddy ‘The Baddy’ Pimblett has made a bold statement claiming that VAR has become ‘legalised match fixing’ in the Premier League. In a recent episode of the ‘Boss Podcast’ by musician Jamie Webster and UFC’s Paddy Pimblett, the two spoke about their dislike towards VAR and how they believe that Liverpool have been purposely given wrong decisions.
“People are probably going to laugh at me saying this, but I’m not a***. VAR is just modern day match fixing – it’s just legalised match fixing – if they want to,” said an enraged Pimblett. This huge suggestion and accusation has come after Liverpool were not awarded a penalty in the ‘title-deciding’ match against Manchester City last weekend, which ultimately ended in a 1-1 draw.
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Deep into injury time, Jeremy Doku caught World-Cup-winning midfielder Alexis Mac Allister with a high foot challenge in the box, causing an uproar among Liverpool fans when a penalty was not given. While the contact was not heavy, contact was clearly there, which resulted in a dramatic reaction from the Argentinian. On-the-pitch referee Michael Oliver had his view impaired by Mac Allister as his back was towards him, which led to the incident going to VAR, where it was eventually not given.
“It doesn’t matter now, does it? Because we’ve only got one point instead of three, and we’re second and not first,” said Paddy when referring to this situation.
Earlier this season, Liverpool were involved in another situation that caused a similar uproar in their fixture against Tottenham Hotspur. Luis Diaz thought he had put the Reds ahead in the first half – only for the flag to be raised by the assistant referee. Following this, it went to VAR where it showed the Colombian being clearly played onside by Spurs defender Christian Romero, but no lines were drawn. The goal was incorrectly ruled out for offside, causing an official apology issued by PGMOL afterward. Liverpool went on to lose 2-1.
“You look at the Tottenham thing – look at that f****** line that they drew for the Diaz goal,” said co-host Jamie Webste, who furthered his frustrations with VAR by saying: “With the Odegaard handball lad – talking of Michael Jordan before lad – he’s practically playing basketball there lad – you know what I mean?”
This comment was regarding the decision when Liverpool were denied a penalty in their 1-1 draw with title rivals Arsenal. This saw Mohamed Salah attempt to dribble the ball around Odegaard, who was off balance and blocked the ball low with his hand. The decision implied that Odegaard was falling and that this was not intentional, therefore the penalty was not given.
“Everyone says we always moan about whatever, but we have been the team – especially towards the top end of the table – who have had (the most) points affected by VAR decisions,” stated Jamie Webster.
Statistics by ESPN do claim that Liverpool are level with Sheffield United and Wolverhampton Wanderers with a total of ‘-3’ overall net points affected by VAR. However, it does suggest that Liverpool have had many decisions in their favour that have stemmed from VAR decisions.
“Lad it does my head in the way other fans call us LiVARpool when we’re the team that gets affected by it the most,” concluded Pimblett.
Where this may be the case this season, last season the same ESPN statistics also stated that Liverpool were second for their overall VAR net score, highlighting where the nickname may have stemmed from.