Pep Guardiola's Take on VAR and Controversial Officiating
Pep Guardiola has lived with VAR long enough to know one thing: if you leave the margin fine, you leave your fate to a coin toss.
In his world, the only real antidote to controversy is cruelty on the scoreboard.
“A flip of a coin”
The Manchester City manager is still stung by what he sees as decisive officiating errors in back-to-back FA Cup final defeats in 2024 and 2025. Those wounds have reopened this week, with VAR once again dominating the Premier League conversation after West Ham were denied a stoppage-time equaliser against Arsenal – a call that could tilt the title race and the relegation fight in one stroke.
Guardiola’s response is not to join the noise, but to harden the message inside his own dressing room.
“We lost the two finals of the FA Cup because the referees didn’t do their jobs they should do, even the VAR,” he said. “When this happens it is because we have to do better, not the referees or VAR.
“I never trust anything since I arrived a long time ago. Always I learned you have to do it better, do it better, be in a position to do it better because you blame yourself with what you have to do, because (VAR) is a flip of a coin.”
For Guardiola, the lesson is brutal and simple: don’t give the officials a decision to make.
Final scars that haven’t faded
City’s recent history at Wembley explains the edge in his voice.
Two years ago, they were stunned 2-1 by Manchester United in a final that cut deeper than most. Guardiola believed his side should have had two penalties, both for challenges on Erling Haaland – one by Lisandro Martinez, another by Kobbie Mainoo. Neither brought the outcome he wanted from the referee or from Stockley Park.
Last season, Crystal Palace delivered another shock in the showpiece. Dean Henderson emerged as one of the heroes of Palace’s triumph, saving a penalty and repelling City’s pressure. Yet Guardiola and his staff felt the game might have taken a different shape had the goalkeeper been sent off for handling outside his area.
Those moments linger. They always do at elite level, where seasons swing on inches and interpretations. But Guardiola refuses to let them become an excuse or a crutch.
No room for debate
He knows the VAR debate will rage on – especially after West Ham’s late anguish against Arsenal – yet he is adamant City cannot afford to get lost in it with another critical week ahead.
Guardiola wants clarity, not complaints, when Crystal Palace arrive at the Etihad on Wednesday. Clarity on the pitch, on the ball, on the scoreboard.
“You have to do better and better for yourself, and that is focusing on Crystal Palace for us,” he said. “Of course it is not in our hands in the Premier League. Always I say to the players, ‘Do it, do it, do it better’.
“I always learned that when you lose the focus, you are in a dangerous situation. The only thing we can do is do it better, that is only in your control.”
City go into the game chasing a victory that would cut Arsenal’s lead at the top to two points. The margins are thin. The pressure is thick.
Guardiola cannot control the next VAR frame or the next referee’s call. He can control the ferocity of his team’s response. Against Palace, he wants a performance so emphatic that the technology, and the arguments that follow it, barely matter at all.
