Qudus Salihu
Why There is No VAR in FA Cup as Tammy Abraham Scores Offside Goal vs Newcastle
Published Feb 14, 2026, 6:16 PM GMT
Hal is an
experienced football journalist having produced content for websites
such as Goal, football.london, 90min and many others.
Having picked up his MA in Sports Journalism and NCTJ qualification from
St Mary’s University Twickenham, Hal has since been part of Snack
Media/Valnet since late 2021.
He started as a freelance football writer for This Is Futbol and carried
that on over to FootballFanCast before becoming their social media
editor. He now works as part of the social media team at GiveMeSport,
predominantly writing news and feature articles on Premier League,
Champions League and international football.
Hal mainly loves football and is an Arsenal fan, but also keeps an eye on the All Blacks having grown up in New Zealand.
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With the FA Cup
fourth round taking place this weekend, fans across England will be
desperate for their teams to progress in the oldest national football
competition in the world. As such, Newcastle United supporters would have been left in disbelief after Tammy Abraham scored the opener in their game against Aston Villa. The
English striker showed great instincts to get onto the end of a
cleverly worked free-kick at Villa Park in the 14th minute. Upon looking
at the replay, however, it became undeniably clear that Abraham was
standing in an offside position when the ball was clipped in. This
was not a VAR gaffe, though, but instead a simple mistake by the
officials. Indeed, as the game was part of the FA Cup fourth round,
there was no VAR in use, meaning the linesman and referee could not rely
on the technology to correct their mistake.
VAR Not in Use For Three Key Aston Villa vs Newcastle Incidents
Speaking in the BBC studio at half-time, pundits Alan Shearer, Dion
Dublin and Wayne Rooney all agreed that Abraham’s goal was offside, with
Shearer saying it was ‘not a difficult decision’ but accepting that the
officials may be finding it hard to do their job after relying on VAR
every week in the Premier League. Adding
insult to injury, Lucas Digne then lunged into Jacob Murphy, catching
the winger with his studs fairly high and late. Once again, with no VAR
in use, Aston Villa were let off the hook. BBC commentator Danny Murphy
insisted that it would have been upgraded to red had the technology been
available, with Shearer and Rooney also saying it should have been a
red card. Just before the break, though, the third time was
finally the charm for Newcastle as Villa once again pushed the
boundaries of the law. This time, Marco Bizot raced out of his goal and
brought down Murphy. Referee Chris Kavanagh felt as though the
goalkeeper had denied a clear goal-scoring opportunity and so reached
for his red card. Interestingly enough, again, commentator
Murphy wasn’t convinced it was the right call. But with no VAR in use,
the on-pitch decision stood, leaving Villa down to 10 men just before
the half-time break. There was then another incident involving
Dinge in the second half when the referee gave Newcastle a free kick
for handball, but replays showed the left-back was in the box and so it
should have been a penalty. Sandro Tonali actually scored from the
resulting set-piece, so justice was just about served. Newcastle would go on to win the game 3-1.
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Qudus Salihu
