FANS were left baffled after Fulham’s opening goal against Chelsea was ruled out for a “careless challenge”.
Josh King’s first half opener was disallowed following a VAR review after Rodrigo Muniz was deemed to have trodden on the toe of Trevoh Chalobah.
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King had coolly tucked away his first senior goal for the Cottagers to put the visitors ahead in the London derby.
But celebrations with the travelling support were cut short when referee Rob Jones was told to review a foul in the build up.
King had brilliantly brought the ball forward himself and tucked his effort into the bottom corner.
But teammate Muniz was deemed to have fouled Chalobah while trying to perform a roulette in the build up.
Muniz, turned while in possession of the ball and stood on the foot of the Chelsea defender who was trying to tackle him.
After being sent to the monitor to review the decision, referee Jones ruled the goal out and said the Muniz had made a “careless challenge” – despite being in possession of the ball when the foul was made.
Jones said : “After review, Fulham number nine commits a careless challenge, stands on the foot of the Chelsea defender, therefore we disallow the goal and we restart with a Chelsea free kick. There would be no further action.”
Fulham boss Marco Silva was incensed by the decision, cutting a frustrated figure on the sidelines.
While fans were in the same camp, slamming the ruling on social media.
One supporter labelled the call as “scandalous”, while another claimed that VAR is “ruining football”.
It wasn’t just fans that were voicing their opinions either.
Former Chelsea ace Joe Cole, who was on the commentary team for TNT Sports, claimed that giving fouls for moments like that is “sanitising football”.
While ex-Man Utd and England star Rio Ferdinand wrote on X: “VAR killing this young man’s moment…”.
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