Ellis Simms, Callum O’Hare and Haji Wright all scored before Victor Torp appeared to have won it for the Sky Blues in the 121st minute. The Coventry substitute tucked home from Wright’s cross, only for VAR to rule it out for offside against the American in the build-up and puncture the jubilant scenes in the stands.
Wright was narrowly beyond Aaron Wan-Bissaka, the last United defender, when O’Hare played the ball through to him. It was a heartbreaking moment for Coventry, who then lost on spot-kicks as Andre Onana saved from O’Hare and Ben Sheaf blazed over the bar.
“We deserved to go through, we were 20 seconds away and a toenail offside, it’s ridiculous,” Coventry boss Mark Robins said. “Had he [Haji Wright] cut his toe nail, it wouldn’t have gone to penalties.”
The PGMOL have defended the offside decision amid a backlash led by Coventry fans, who have claimed it was wrong because the line was not drawn correctly from Wan-Bissaka’s foot.
Currently, VAR uses Hawk-Eye technology to judge offsides: the VAR manually picks the point on the last defender and the attacker for the lines to be drawn automatically. The Premier League announced earlier in April that its clubs had voted through the change, which will also see SAOT used in the FA Cup at Premier League grounds and at Wembley.
SAOT uses 10 bespoke cameras and AI technology to track all 22 players via 29 data points on their bodies so it knows their exact positions at all times. SAOT is semi-automated so it won’t require a VAR to choose the point from which to draw the line – only to validate that the kick point and offside line are accurate.
The process, which works at 50 frames per second, should be much quicker than the current one – and could prevent outrage like with the Wright offside call. It definitely won’t eliminate the “toenail” decisions, but it should at least get rid of the uncertainty – and conspiracy theories – surrounding the drawing the lines.
The PGMOL have insisted that Wright was in an offside position when the ball was played to him – and more people might have been convinced if there was more faith in the system and had they been given the view that comes with SAOT. *Join our new WhatsApp community* *and receive your daily dose of Mirror Football content.
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