Nuno Espirito Santo says referees ‘not taking their own decisions’ due to VAR

Nottingham Forest boss Nuno Espirito Santo wants referees to have more conviction in their decisions rather than rely on VAR.

Forest are in the middle of a storm following their heavy-handed statement after last Sunday’s 2-0 defeat at Everton, where they effectively accused VAR Stuart Attwell of being a Luton fan.

Attwell failed to overturn referee Anthony Taylor’s decision on three penalty incidents, which is the latest in a long line controversial moments to have gone against Forest, who now face Premier League and Football Association charges.

Nottingham Forest has today submitted a formal request to the PGMOL to release into the public domain the audio recordings between officials during yesterday’s match against Everton at Goodison Park.

The club has requested this be shared for three key match incidents - Ashley…

— Nottingham Forest (@NFFC) April 22, 2024

Nuno has always been wary of VAR and believes referees are shirking decisions knowing they have someone at Stockley Park to fall back on.

“The general feeling in football is referees are not taking their own decisions so this is affecting a lot,” he said. “They are not taking their decisions and waiting for the VAR to intervene is not helping the situation.

“Referees are the authority on the pitch and then VAR should help. What we want is to move forward.

“If nobody asked who is refereeing this match before it’s a sign things went well. It’s what we wish for, that nobody speaks about referees, they speak about the game.

“We cannot ignore it, things have been bad – they should feel responsible for it because there have been a lot of mistakes, not only in our games. You can see things are not well. What we ask for is improvement.

“It’s not just the recent games. It