"I'm really sorry" - Ex-Premier League referee reveals Mac Allister moment that devastated him

The only person criticised more than a struggling Premier League player is a top flight referee. Most decisions are scrutinised, the time it takes to make a decision is often at the centre of complaints and wrong decisions steal headline after headline. But it's not just the fans that despise VAR.

Graham Scott: VAR is "utterly unenjoyable"

The introduction of VAR was supposed to take away any controversy in certain decisions. Diving would be eradicated, offsides made undeniable and most headlines could finally centre around the football. Six years on, however, the Video Assistant Referee has done none of those things. In fact, all it has done is increase the noise surrounding refereeing decisions.

Fans often make their opinion known and so do the managers in the Premier League. Burnley manager Scott Parker told reporters about his frustration after his side suffered a late 3-2 defeat against Manchester United in a game that saw the Clarets have a goal narrowly chalked off.

"It's the way the game is going. It's going to become the most sterile game there is. We're probably months or a year away from not celebrating goals.

"I stand on the touchline, you score a goal and I feel like there's a million things go through your mind, a checklist, was it offside? Did he step on his toe two minutes before? We need to get a computer out."

It's not just the managers and fans who have been critical of the technology, though. Former referee and VAR official Scott recently told talkSPORT: "Off the field you can't control anything and the noise now is insane. It's almost unbearable and it becomes an extremely challenging role. Then, layering on top of that being VAR, as I've tried to convey in my piece, being a VAR is utterly unenjoyable."

The former referee didn't hold back after that, either, and even revealed the time that he felt sorry after a decision against Alexis Mac Allister.

Scott reveals devastation over Mac Allister decision

Continuing, Scott revealed that he felt devastated after ruling out Mac Allister's stunning goal against Leicester City. The then-Brighton midfielder thumped home an unstoppable strike, only for VAR to intervene and rule the goal out for a marginal offside against Enock Mwepu after five minutes of checking.

Speaking about the decision, Scott told talkSPORT: "He scored probably the best strike from outside the box I've ever seen and you just put your head in your hands. You think, 'I am going to have to chalk this off now', and you look at the replay, 'oh no, his shoulder looks like it might be off'.

"And you draw these tiny lines and think 'this is gonna end badly, I can tell' and you end up going I'm really sorry but I'm gonna have to disallow this goal that everyone's loved and the crowd has gone mad. You spend minutes hoping it's alright and it's not."

In a rare insight into the life of a referee, Scott revealed the struggles of being a VAR official and shared similar frustrations with the managers as well as the fans in the Premier League.

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