Antonio Conte still fuming over disallowed Tottenham goal as he claims VAR is ‘not football’

Antonio Conte unleashed another furious attack on VAR, claiming it is killing football’s emotion after Tottenham were denied a 95th-minute winner against Sporting Lisbon.

Harry Kane thought he had sealed Spurs’ place in Wednesday’s Champions League knockouts, but his late strike was ruled out after a tight offside.

Conte, who was sent off in the aftermath, was against the decision full-time and the manager was still angry at his pre-match press conference ahead of Tottenham’s trip to Bournemouth on Saturday.

‘I haven’t changed my mind. I repeat that the decision was really wrong, they caused us great damage,” said Conte.

‘What she [did] in the last game was incredible. You score, you are already qualified for the next round, you celebrate and then you have to stay for five minutes to watch the situation, to watch the VAR. To make a decision and you don’t know if it’s right or wrong, this isn’t football this way. It’s not football this way either because you’re cutting through the emotion. You cut off everyone’s emotion, especially the players because you don’t know. Before you score a goal and now you don’t know what happens later.

‘If someone invents a trap a minute earlier, discovers a trap a minute earlier and then bans it. It happens [like] this one. But it only happens when they want [it] to happen. This is the difference. For this reason I keep saying it must be the right interpretation, but it must be the interpretation for everyone and not another interpretation otherwise it is a harm, VAR can become a harm in this way.”

The Italian also stressed that it should be ‘impossible’ for officials to make a mistake with the VAR and wondered why referees cannot see ‘clear’ decisions.

Conte’s Spurs side were denied a late winner against Sporting Lisbon for this offside

Harry Kane (L) couldn’t believe his stoppage time strike was undone by VAR technology

“I repeat, I don’t know for me, I keep thinking it’s impossible to make a mistake with the VAR, it’s impossible, it’s impossible. Because you have a screen, you have time and then… it’s impossible to make mistakes for this reason.

“For me it’s impossible with the VAR to make a wrong decision and also stay four, five, six minutes and keep the people there. If you’ve been staying for five or six minutes, it means you’re already confused in your head. It’s unbelievable, I repeat, it’s unbelievable. I justify the referee’s mistake, I always say that. Against Newcastle it was unbelievable that VAR didn’t see a player blocking Hugo Lloris. Why didn’t they call the referee, why, why? It was so obvious. Another big, big mistake. I repeat that it is very difficult to say anything about this because we are talking about situations that are so obvious. Finding an answer is difficult and I hope to see honesty in every situation. I only ask this, honesty. Making a mistake with the VAR means you really, really… I don’t want to say what I think.

“I think the VAR is a big help for the referee to make the best decision. I think this because with the VAR, when we started using the VAR in Italy, we were really confident and in every situation and also on the couch you were calm, relaxed because you know that people see the video and see it again, to the the right time to check, to check, for many times a situation.

“I was very happy because I said that in a positive, negative situation the most important thing is that there is honesty in the decision and to make the best decision. But after six months, the situation began to change. They started to [have] different interpretations. Now you don’t know what they’re up to.

A smoking Conte expressed his anger and received a red card from the referee that night

‘This isn’t the first time. The problem in this way they have to improve a lot but when I stay at home and I see the image, I watch another match and I see the image and then I see the VAR, for me it’s easy to make the best decision . For example, instead you see them making the opposite decision. unbelievable. Maybe they see a different picture in the VAR.’

Conte’s red card means he will miss Tottenham’s crucial game with Marseille next week. The manager said he was shown a red card for going on the pitch and thinks referees should better understand the ’emotion’ of late decisions.

“I was kicked off the field for getting on the field.” said Conte. “But I see a lot of people coming onto the pitch after a decision and after we waited five minutes to see your goal disallowed. I have not offended anyone.

“I overcame the line of the field and then quickly came back. I also think in situations like this I think that if I have to tell something about the referee, maybe they should also understand the emotions of the moment. You disallow a goal five minutes after we celebrate, a goal that was qualifying for us. If you are then a little, but I think you have to understand I was very close to the line, but if that means damage to us.’