"Why are they not showing it to us?" - Graeme Souness blasts Japan goal VAR decision at FIFA World Cup

Modified Dec 02, 2022 06:40 GMT

Japan were awarded the goal by VAR after linesman ruled it out

Graeme Souness has taken shots at VAR and claimed something untoward is going on at the FIFA World Cup. The pundit questioned the decision to award Japan the goal and not show the process during the lengthy VAR check.

The VAR process of checking Japan's second goal against Spain was not shown to the fans. The linesman initially ruled the goal out, but replays showed the ball was in play as the Asian side eventually won.

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Speaking on ITV after the game, Souness was furious with VAR for not showing the checking process to the public and said:

"Not producing a picture says something untoward is at play. Every television studio, every pundit has an interest in this World Cup will be wanting to see the picture where at the end where this happened. In real time, as it happened, the ball went out, the pictures we've seen shown the ball went out. Why aren't FIFA showing us something which is so controversial that it just cost the Germans dearly. Why are they not showing it to us? This is enormous, 45 minutes later, why aren't they showing it? Clear it up for us, please."

He added that they did not have conclusive evidence of the goal and thus did not produce the VAR process. He added:

"We're getting close to an hour since the incident. The longer they don't come up with a picture, that last bit would show me that ball is out of play. The longer they don't produce that picture which shows conclusively that its not gone out of play, you'd think there's something untoward going on. It has to be."

He went on:

"There's 80 million Germans, right now, going mad that shows that ball didn't go out of play. I think every TV studio, pundit, people doing your job [presenting] is waiting, why, nearly an hour later are they not showing it?"