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Row Z: VAR-induced meltdowns, Infantino’s bold claims and players thrown under the bus

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5 months ago

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Welcome to Row Z, The Athletic’s weekly column that shines a light on the bonkers side of the game.

From clubs to managers, players to organisations, every week we’ll bring you the absurdities, the greed, the contradictions, the preposterousness and the oddities of the sport we all love…

A clear and obvious error… from VAR?

So VAR decided the fate of the Premier League title (as well as the race for survival) and everybody reacted really calmly about the situation.

VARcical shouted Mail Online, VARCICAL screamed The Sun, which went full caps lock for extra faux outrage (they also queried TOO VAR GONE?), while even Auntie Beeb asked: Biggest VAR call ever?

West Ham United fans took it really well…

Disappointing opportunity missed to use the word ‘VARCE’ at the end there.

Anyway, whatever your take on the decision, it’s clear VAR definitely does exactly what the Premier League says it was brought in for.

VAR will be used only for “clear and obvious errors” or “serious missed incidents”, the league stated. And referee Chris Kavanagh was, of course, looking directly at the Pablo/David Raya incident when it happened.

“There is a high bar for the VARs to intervene on subjective decisions, to maintain the pace and intensity of matches,” the league also says.

The amount of time it took VAR official Darren England to review the footage? Almost three minutes. And then Kavanagh was at the screen for? Yes, one minute and 15 seconds.

And as PGMOL chief Howard Webb said at the start of the season, grappling in the box will be clamped down on and more penalties given for players being pulled back or blocked.

Number of penalties conceded by Arsenal this season? None. They clearly just don’t grapple, pull or block any opposition players in the penalty area.

Infantino’s hype versus cold, hard reality

Gianni Infantino is not known for understatement (Ton Molina/Getty Images)

“One month to go! The greatest and most inclusive FIFA World Cup ever kicks off on June 11!”

Understated FIFA president Gianni Infantino there, cautiously predicting the 2026 edition will be the best World Cup ever.

Pretty bold claim, to be fair. What did he say about Russia 2018, out of interest? “It is the best World Cup ever.”

Interesting. Did he make any modest claims about how good Qatar 2022 would be? “It will be the best World Cup ever, of course.”

And then what were his humble thoughts after Qatar? “The best World Cup ever.”

Gianni, did you enjoy your slice of toast for breakfast this morning? “It was the best toast ever.”

Curious, then, that for a tournament set to unequivocally be the greatest football spectacle ever held, the equivalent to 104 Super Bowls, etc, that tickets are still being sold with only a few weeks to go until it starts.

In January, FIFA stated global demand had reached “unprecedented levels”, with more than 500,000,000 ticket requests, working out at around 15 million requests per day in the 33-day application window. Wow! For a tournament that has only around seven million tickets on sale, that’s impressive. Should sell out in seconds!

Also in January, here’s the notoriously subtle Infantino on ticket demand: “In almost 100 years of World Cup history, FIFA sold around 50 million tickets in total. Now, for this World Cup, in four weeks we have the request for 1,000 years of World Cups at once. This is unique. It’s incredible.”

And then in February: All of the 104 matches are “sold out“.

Fair play, the best World Cup ever deserves sold-out stadiums for every match. Nice work, Gianni!

Also FIFA, promoting “last-minute” sales of tickets which can only be sold on a first-come, first-served basis at the start of April.

And also also FIFA, another round of “limited” tickets last week “while supplies last”. Meanwhile, resale prices continue to drop.

Perhaps it’s something to do with the astronomical prices? But then, as Infantino says (and he meant this as a positive): “We have 25 per cent of the group-stage tickets which can be bought for less than $300.”

As President Donald Trump said himself when informed of $1,000 tickets to watch USMNT against Paraguay next month: “I would certainly like to be there, but I wouldn’t pay it either, to be honest with you.”

What do you reckon Gianni? Best line from Trump ever?

Some questionable managerial messaging

Another miserable defeat for Wolverhampton Wanderers at Brighton & Hove Albion on Saturday left the players, the fans and certainly the head coach wishing for the season to end ASAP.

Rob Edwards, who left a Championship promotion race with Middlesbrough to join the Wolves sinking ship, slammed his players as not being good enough to compete in the Championship, let alone the Premier League. Blimey.

The head coach also, somewhat bravely given the fanbase are foaming at the mouth with pitchforks in hand as the club heads for its worst season in terms of points gained, declared on Friday it wasn’t his fault Wolves are in the mess they find themselves in.

It all represents a bit of a change in tack from the Premier League’s most handsome manager (for another two weeks).

November 13 after being appointed: “There’s an opportunity here for us to do something really special and that appeals to me. We want to achieve something incredible.”

March 3 after beating Liverpool: “At the moment we look a good team. There’s a stark difference to the level and fight the lads are showing. Everyone’s in it together. There’s a good energy around and a belief we’re going in the right direction.”

May 8 with relegation having long since been confirmed: “It’s not my fault.”

May 9, 19 points from safety with two games to go: “I don’t think the group we’ve got would be able to compete in the Championship. We’re looking forward to being able to end the charade of this season. The more change the better.”

All for one and one for all, eh? Spirit of the Dambusters and all that.

To be fair to Edwards, whose Premier League win percentage from 63 matches with Luton Town and Wolves now stands at 14 per cent (an average of 0.67 points per game), he arrived with Wolves having taken just two points from their opening 11 matches, so to solely blame him for relegation is clearly unfair.

That hasn’t stopped Wolves fans replying to the official club account with sarcastic “it’s not his fault” posts, of which this was the clear highlight…

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Scotland 0 – 3 Switzerland

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11 minutes ago

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September 30, 2026

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Sebastien Pocognoli tasted defeat in his first match at Hampden as his 10-man Scotland side were comfortably beaten 3-0 by Switzerland in Nations League B.

Defender Jack Hendry was dismissed inside the first 10 minutes for denying a clear goalscoring opportunity when he hauled down Nottingham Forest’s Dan Ndoye – before former AC Milan full-back Ricardo Rodriguez carefully curled the resulting free-kick into the top-left corner from the edge of the box.

This followed a period of confusion around the national stadium in which Serb referee Nenad Minakovic had originally awarded a penalty and shown Hendry a yellow card before his decision was corrected by VAR.

Scotland responded well and fought valiantly despite their numerical disadvantage but were eventually foiled early in the second half when Remo Freuler’s low cross picked out Nico Elvedi who helped the ball into the far corner at the near post.

Burnley forward Zeki Amdouni then completed the scoring in the 82nd minute by stepping onto Ndoye’s cutback and lashing the ball past Scotland stopper Angus Gunn.

The Scots travel to North Macedonia on Saturday then welcome Slovenia to Hampden next Tuesday – still in search of their first victory in Nations League B1.

The key moments from Hampden Park

9: PENALTY TO SWITZERLAND! Hendry brings down Ndoye and the referee points to the spot.

10: NO PENALTY! VAR has taken a look and the challenge was outside the box. But Hendry is sent off.

Jack Hendry was red-carded at 0-0
Image:
Jack Hendry was red-carded at 0-0

12: GOAL FOR SWITZERLAND! Well it was not a penalty but what a free-kick! Rodriguez steps up and blasts the ball past Gunn and the Swiss are ahead.

21: SCOTLAND WANT A PENALTY! John McGinn protests that he was being held as the corner is curled in, but it is play on. Andy Robertson then blasts the next corner over the bar.

29: BOOS AROUND HAMPDEN! Oli McBurnie is clipped as he looks to take the ball into the box. Free-kick? No says the referee.

45+1: YELLOW! Pocognoli picks up a booking as he shows his frustration at some of the refereeing decisions.

51: CHANCE! Ndoye sends the ball into the box, but Johan Manzambi cannot get to it in time and it goes past the post.

55: GOAL FOR SWITZERLAND! It is too easy for Switzerland. Elvedi sweeps home Ndoye’s cross to double their advantage. Groans around Hampden.

82: GOAL FOR SWITZERLAND! It gets worse for Scotland. Amdouni gets on the end of Ndoye’s cross and smashes the ball into the net. A tough night at Hampden Park.

‘After eight minutes, game plan had to be put on the side’

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Scotland head coach Sebastien Pocognoli was frustrated as his Hampden Park debut ended in a 3-0 defeat to Switzerland.

Scotland head coach Sebastien Pocognoli:

“Frustrating night, to be honest. Not a lot to say about the game, we can analyse the game with 80 per cent of the game with 10 men.

“Direct finish from the red card with a free-kick, so probably the worst situation that we can have.

“Should prefer maybe a penalty and to stay with with 11 men and to maybe show exactly what we what we planned for the game.

“But we start quite aggressive, front foot and after eight minutes the game plan has to put on the side and just see the team reacting well or not with 10 men.

“They did their best, to be honest. They had the great attitude to stick together, try to have the moment in transition or set pieces or something, but it never happened because Switzerland is a good side as well and they didn’t give anything away.”

‘We have to stay positive’

Scotland captain Andy Robertson is dejected
Image:
Scotland captain Andy Robertson is dejected

Scotland captain Andy Robertson speaking to BBC Scotland:

“Your first home game under the new manager, you want to get off to a good start.

“It got off to the worst possible start getting a man sent off early doors. It was incredibly hard with 11 men on the pitch, it was even harder with 10.

“We hardly touched the ball second half, but it didn’t stop the lads from fighting for each other.

“Football is about split second decisions, Jack Hendry has tried to nick the ball. As soon as the referee said it was outside the box I thought we would have been better taking the penalty and the yellow card.

“It’s a difficult night but we won’t try and let it get in the way of our process. We’ve got a new manager and a new squad so we have to try to stay positive.

“Going into the next game we have to try to forget about it.

“I think he [the manager] was proud of the fight that we showed. What we’ve planned for the last three days went completely out the window. We had to rip up the plan and try something else.

“Ultimately I don’t think we’ll take too much from this game in terms of how we want to look as a Scotland team.

“It’s up to everyone to stay positive. I’m proud of how the camp has gone so far we just need to get the results.”

Scotland’s Nations League fixtures

  • October 3 – North Macedonia (A) 7.45pm
  • October 6 – Slovenia (H) 7.45pm
  • November 13 – North Macedonia (H) 7.45pm
  • November 16 – Switzerland (A) 7.45pm

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