According to a recent source, Nottingham Forest can now feel vindicated for their VAR grievances from the previous season.
Throughout the season, the Reds believed they were the victim of several bad decisions. And following the club’s 2-0 loss to Everton last month, that feeling of injustice reached a boiling point in a vehement tweet from the official account.
Nonetheless, it is evident from a list of the 31 VAR mistakes that the impartial Key Match Incidents (KMI) panel compiled that Forest had good reason to feel unfairly treated. They, along with Brighton and Hove Albion and Liverpool, were among the teams most negatively impacted by VAR blunders in 2023–2024; all three had four errors.
The Reds were denied three penalties, against Newcastle United, West Ham United, and Everton, according to the list made public by ESPN. Additionally, in their 1-0 loss to Brighton in March, their opponents were not given a red card.
Every significant decision made in every match is examined by the Premier League’s KMI panel. Forest will contend that more calls went against them, although the official list of errors from the KMI panel contained only four.
The first call that the KMI panel found to be erroneous happened during the team’s 3-2 loss to the Magpies at the City Ground in February. According to the report, when the score was 2-2, Martin Dubravka challenged Taiwo Awoniyi, and the Reds should have been granted a spot kick.
A week later, in their 2-0 victory over the Hammers, Nuno Espirito Santo’s team also ought to have received a penalty. The panel declared that there ought to have been a penalty kick for Maxwel Cornet’s foul on Neco Williams in the 81st minute, with the score at 1-0.
At Brighton, Forest lost 1-0 the following month. The official decision to leave Jakub Moder on the field after he challenged Williams in the 67th minute was erroneous.
The altercation at Goodison Park turned out to be especially contentious. The KMI panel determined that there was only one bad call, which was Ashley Young’s challenge on Callum Hudson-Odoi in the 55th minute with the score at 1-0. The Reds contended that they should have been awarded three penalties.
On the flip side, the list indicates Forest had two VAR mistakes go in their favour. It is said Burnley’s Lyle Foster incorrectly had a goal disallowed for deliberate handball by Sander Berge in the build-up in the 76th minute of the 1-1 draw at the City Ground. And in October’s 1-1 stalemate with Brentford, the panel said a penalty should have been awarded to the visitors for a challenge by Reds goalkeeper Matt Turner on Yoane Wissa.
Any incidents not included on the official list mean the panel deemed them to be either correct or not a clear and obvious error. ESPN say Forest were on the end of three incidents that the KMI panel deemed to be refereeing errors but not sufficient to be classed as “clear and obvious” for a VAR intervention.
