Manchester United midfielder Juan Mata has reiterated his belief that VAR will bring "justice" to the game, despite seeing a goal controversially ruled out by the system at the weekend.
Mata appeared to have doubled United's lead during their FA Cup fifth-round clash with Huddersfield Town on Saturday, only for the goal to be chalked off on review due to a marginal offside decision.
United went on to win the game 2-0 and, although he was on the wrong end of the decision this weekend, Mata believes that the technology will ultimately be a good thing for the sport.
"A lot has been said about the goal that I scored and was disallowed by the VAR. It was my first time, a new experience for me [and for almost all of us, actually]. The truth is, once you have celebrated the goal you are surprised and disappointed [as you could see on my face], but this time, luckily, that goal was not needed to win," Mata wrote in his weekly blog on the club's official website.
"As I said in a few interviews after the game, even if this time it didn't play in our favour, I think in the future the VAR will be helpful for the referees, who always have a difficult job, and eventually it will bring more justice to football... Given that an unfair call or a wrong one might have significant consequences (sending a team to relegation, having a manager sacked, etc.), I understand that we must try to make the final result as fair as possible, and that's where I think that a proper use of the VAR can be really helpful.
"Technology can help football to be more fair, especially nowadays when it seems that the result is the only thing that matters. I believe, though, that such technology should be restricted to a few particular actions that are crucial in the game [in order to avoid too many interruptions], and especially that the final decision should take less time and be more clear than last Saturday's."
United's reward for beating Huddersfield is a quarter-final clash with Brighton & Hove Albion at Old Trafford.
Barney Corkhill
