DAVID MOYES took aim at VAR in the wake of West Ham’s defeat to Chelsea after Fabian Balbuena was sent off for a CLEARANCE.
And the Scot blasted ‘only somebody who’s never played the game’ would have made the decision after a tense 90 minutes at the Olympic Stadium.
The Paraguayan defender, 29, was shown a straight red card in the 81st minute after catching Chelsea ace Ben Chilwell while clearing the ball.
The game was brought to a halt as the England left-back writhed on the ground in agony after feeling the full force of Balbuena’s studs on his calf.
And VAR official Michael Oliver then took a second look at the incident before telling referee Chris Kavanagh to make a decision using the pitchside monitor.
Despite the replay showing Balbuena did not intend to make contact with Chilwell, Kavanagh jogged back to the pitch before producing a red card.
The sending off knocked the stuffing out of the Hammers, who had been pressing forward in search of an equaliser to keep their Champions League hopes alive.
As it happened, they ended up being pegged back by Chelsea for the closing stages of the game, with the Blues already 1-0 up thanks to Timo Werner’s effort just before half-time.
The result means Chelsea are now three points ahead of West Ham in the final Champions League spot, while also boasting double the goal difference.
But Moyes was far from happy at the final, calling it a ‘rubbish decision’ while also questioning why Antonio Rudiger stayed on the pitch following a similar incident with Vladimir Coufal.
Moyes told Sky Sports: “I think it’s a decision made by somebody who has never played the game. I don’t know where Fabio Balbuena is supposed to plant his foot.
“If they do think that, then you’ll look at the one a few minutes later which was the same with Coufal and Rudiger.
“It was a very similar challenge but they never did anything about it, so is there a consistent message to both of them?
“I don’t see how it’s a red card. He’s kicked through the ball, I don’t think for one minutes there’s a bit of malice in that trying to catch him. I thought it was a rubbish decision.
“But we’ll go again, we’re in a decent position, there’s games to play and hopefully we are right in the mix for some form of European football right to the end and I’ll keep trying to push to make the Champions League if we can.”
Former West Ham and Manchester United star Rio Ferdinand took aim at VAR too, saying it should be ‘put in the bin’ and is simply ’s***’.
Ferdinand tweeted: “VAR needs to be put in the bin now. We’ve tried it and it’s s***. Get rid. It’s slowing the game down and sucking the emotion out of the game.”
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Source: Soccer - thesun.co.uk
