'Supporters pay to see football' - Brighton's Fabian Hurzeler calls out time-wasting and Premier League VAR delays
Fabian Hurzeler let his feelings known after Brighton drew at home to Bournemouth in a Premier League clash.
On Monday, January 19, Brighton were involved in a tense encounter as Bournemouth visited the Amex Stadium.
Albion came into the game in steady league form, having drawn with Manchester City and West Ham either side of a home win over Burnley.
Brighton controlled possession early on but found themselves behind after a VAR intervention overturned an initial booking for simulation and resulted in a Bournemouth penalty, converted by Marcus Tavernier.
The decision prompted debate on the Sky Sports coverage, with Jamie Carragher suggesting such penalties would not have been awarded in previous eras.
The match drifted through a tense second half before a dramatic equaliser in stoppage time, when teenager Charalampos Kostoulas scored a spectacular overhead kick to rescue a point.
Whilst the goal lit up the stadium, the evening was also shaped by long stoppages and disrupted rhythm, themes that would later form the focus of Fabian Hurzeler’s post-match reaction.
After the game, Sussex World reporter Henry Bryant asked the Albion manager how things could be clearer with time-wasting and VAR calls, so that refereeing decisions don’t dominate headlines.
Fabian Hurzeler said: “I think overall, for me, it’s about creating a net time to play, so all the things around time-wasting we see now;
"A throw-in, the right full-back running to the left side to take a long throw-in.
"The goalkeeper, of course now there’s an eight-second rule when he has the ball in his hand, and I really like it because it makes the game much faster.
"But when there’s a normal goal kick and the ball is out, he can still take one minute.
"Then there’s a throw-in, he can still take one minute, and I think we have to limit time, also when we use VAR (too).
"Because when the referee goes to VAR and looks, it can take three or four minutes to make a decision.
"Then it can’t be such a wrong decision that he has to go to the screen, so it doesn’t make sense.
"We have to put football more in focus.
"That’s why we are here, that’s why the players play this game, and not for time-wasting, not for the right full-back running to the left side to take a long throw-in, not for how many times players were lying on the ground.
"That just breaks the rhythm of the game.
"The eight-second rule is a good start, but we have to do much more.
"We have to create a net time, we have to limit this kind of time-wasting, because the fans and supporters are here to see a football game.
"They are not here to see players lying on the ground, the right full-back running across the pitch for a throw-in, or goalkeepers wasting one minute for each goal kick.
"That’s not what supporters pay for, and that’s why I think this definitely has to change, so we get football back in focus.”