AFC Bournemouth have been directly involved in four decisions deemed incorrect by VAR this season, according to the Key Match Incidents (KMI) panel.
VAR errors in the 2025/2026 have already overtaken the number of errors in the previous season despite only being halfway through this season
This season there has already been 13 errors compared to last season’s 10.
This information was decided upon by the KMI panel, a board that reviews all of the decisions to offer clarity to fans.
These decisions did benefit Bournemouth twice, however also went against them on two occasions.
On both occasions errors benefitted them, it was decided that Marcos Senesi luckily evaded a red card for denying clear goalscoring opportunities.
The first was on the opening day against Liverpool where he handled the ball, KMI adjudging him to have ‘deliberately’ batted the ball away when Hugo Ekitkie was through on goal. On the day this was decided as not a red card and denial of a goal scoring opportunity, with VAR referee Michael Oliver only looking at the first, ‘accidental’ touch.
The other incident involving Senesi came at Selhurst Park against Crystal Palace. In a rare scenario, referee Jarred Gillet was sent to the VAR screen to review Senesi bringing down Ismaila Sarr, when Senesi was the last man. But Gillet did not change his original red card decision – something the KMI panel decided was incorrect, saying: “The majority felt that Sarr was very likely to gain possession with the ability to create an obvious goalscoring opportunity.”
The first error wronging the Cherries, was at the Vitality in which West Ham’s Max Kilman handled the ball in the area. With the score at 2-0, Kilman slid when Evanilson was through on goal, and although a handball and penalty was given, Kilman only saw yellow, with no VAR review for a red. The KMI panel said the swipe was ‘deliberate’ and should have seen red for denying a clear goalscoring opportunity.
The latest error was against Chelsea in December, in which Malon Gusto avoided conceding a penalty after handling the ball. The KMI panel said: “The panel felt that the ball hit the ‘red zone’ of his arm that was raised in an unjustifiable position.” The game was 2-2 at the time (which the score stayed), so the Cherries will feel the outcome could have been different had the penalty been awarded.
There was also a mistake on field, that did not reach the threshold for VAR intervention, that affected Bournemouth. Reinildo was awarded a penalty for Sunderland, with the score at 2-0 to Bournemouth, in a game that Sunderland would eventually win 3-2. As well as this, the panel decided that Malick Thiaw should have received a second yellow in the 0-0 draw between Bournemouth and Newcastle in September.
Ewan Corbett, a level 4 qualified referee, spoke on why he believed the change in the amount of mistakes has occured.
He said: “With all the recent rule changes, it becomes increasingly more difficult to define which laws follow which definition, and with the referees becoming more scarce as the years go on and officiating over different competitions with different thresholds for what is a stoppage in a game. UEFA define rules differently to the Premier League, this makes it a lot harder to judge.”
The league is yet to comment on this issue, but they have issued apologies for the wrong decisions across the season.
This season has been a year full of scrutiny for the referees as the technology still is not conclusive leaving fans questioning the point of VAR when it still leaves mistakes in the game.
As well as errors in the Premier League this season, there was also two errors in the EFL Cup semi-finals, with Tuesday evening’s clash between Manchester City and Newcastle United containing one of the most controversial decisions of the season. Antoine Semenyo’s second goal was disallowed due to Erling Haaland ‘impeding’ Magpies defender Malick Thiaw, despite the fact Thiaw would not have been able to stop Semenyo’s effort.
The VAR check took eight minutes, before the goal was ruled out, despite the goal being given on field.
In Wednesday’s all London affair, Ben White’s opening goal was allowed to stand despite it being incredibly similar to the Semenyo goal that was disallowed, with Viktor Gyokeres wrestling Chelsea Striker Marc Guiu on the goalline, in an offside position.
Fans online are demanding consistency, with Ben White’s goal only being a five second VAR check, before being allowed to stand.
Both goals were incredibly similar, with both players impeding play while being in offside positions, whilst one took almost 10 minutes and stood, the other was barely checked before the goal was given.
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