Dale Johnson

@DaleJohnsonBBC

Football Issues Correspondent @BBCSport. Lots of VAR, plus regulations, coefficients and permutations. Views my own. Ex-ESPN.

N 51°25' 0'' / W 0°6' 0'' bbc.co.uk/sport/topics/c… Joined January 2011

1.3K Following 87K Followers 61K Posts

Latest posts 5

Dale Johnson @DaleJohnsonBBC 1d

The busiest weekend VAR has seen in the Premier League? Probably.

But how many errors is the Key Match Incidents Panel likely to find?

BBC Sport picks out the 11 most contentious incidents, runs through each and weighs up how the KMI Panel may vote.

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bbc.co.uk/sport/football…

www.bbc.co.uk Premier League incident-by-incident: Was it a bad weekend for VAR? Almost every game had a controversial VAR decision in the Premier League this weekend. But how many might go down as errors?

Dale Johnson @DaleJohnsonBBC 3d

Being called biased in favour of Arsenal is a new one for 2026-27.

Mark Hollinworth @HollinworthMark 3d

@DaleJohnsonBBC Bias, bias and bias. Dale Johnson writing an article on why Arsenal should be awarded a penalty only one week after claiming an identical incident involving an Arsenal player shouldn’t have been a penalty. Embarrassing.
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Dale Johnson @DaleJohnsonBBC 3d

What actually happened was this

The VAR must bring the referee to the monitor to judge BOTH the penalty and the offside.

This is because the offside offence is subjective.

The referee must make the final decision on both subjective aspects.

FullTime15 | Premier League Podcast 🎙️ Verified account @FullTime15Pod 3d

This is critical because, why was he sent to the monitor to begin with if Havertz is offside?

One answer would be that Michael Oliver knows the letter of the law and that it should have been a penalty even with Havertz in the offside position. In which case a fuck up, as penalty was not given.

Another answer could be that he referred him to the monitor for the penalty, and whilst discussing Hallam suggests to Oliver to check if Havertz is offside. By which point they delay to find that he is actually offside and the game restarts with an offside, even though play has progressed past this point?

Essentially we had a VAR check to give an offside. 🤣
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Dale Johnson @DaleJohnsonBBC 3d

Analysis of the Jayden Bogle challenge on Mathys Tel in here.

Including why this kind of tackle is different to the one which led to a VAR red for Jean-Philippe Mateta.

For me, Bogle short of the threshold for a VAR red. Unfortunate rather than SFP.

bbc.co.uk/sport/football…

www.bbc.co.uk Leeds 1-0 Tottenham: Roberto De Zerbi focuses on Tottenham's failings - but should Jayden Bogle... It was somewhat surprising to see Roberto de Zerbi take a more peaceful approach when he faced the media at Elland Road after Tottenham's 1-0 defeat by Leeds United on Saturday afternoon.

Dale Johnson @DaleJohnsonBBC 3d

Confusion, comparisons and... clarity?

The Kai Havertz penalty claim for Arsenal had many scratching their heads.

Was it offside? Or a spot-kick?

A look at the pros and cons, and why the referee and the VAR ultimately went with offside.

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bbc.co.uk/sport/football…

www.bbc.co.uk Arsenal 1-0 Hull City: Another 1-0 for relentless Arsenal - but did Martin Odegaard spare VAR... Arsenal move six points clear at the top of the Premier League after beating Hull City - but did Martin Odegaard's goal save the blushes of the VAR?