Ex-Premier League referee calls for VAR changes after Burnley incident

The Clarets suffered a 4-0 defeat against the Blues on an afternoon to forget at Turf Moor over the weekend.

But Hackett felt they should have been awarded a spot-kick following Trevor Chalobah’s challenge on Maxwel Cornet.

“We have ones that are difficult to detect and that is this illegal use of the arm on the opponent,” he told Football Insider.

“It was more like a holding offence. I think he was lucky to get away with no penalty kick not being awarded.

“What happens in these situations is the forward gets the wrong side of the defender and the defender is at risk. I think there was a fairly good shout for a penalty kick.”

Hackett says referee Andre Marriner would have benefitted from watching the incident back on a screen.

He insists the Premier League needs to adapt its use of VAR and would like to see a similar system to what is used in the United States.

He added: “VAR didn’t come in and help the referee on that one. I think we’ve got to change the way we operate VAR in England.

“We’ve got to adopt the same procedure as we do in America. On an incident like that, that’s iffy, the referee would look and have an opportunity to see it on the screen.

“From the referee’s position, he’s not got a prayer. He’s in a good position but the action is blocked.

“We’ve got to get over this idea that when a referee goes to the monitor, he’s going to go with the VAR. I would like that referee to go and have a look.

“If he went to the screen and says it’s not a penalty then that’s a better outcome than leaving us in the dark.”

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