Bournemouth still pondering legal action over Hawkeye failure in Aston Villa game

| 28 July 2020

Aston Villa finished one point above the south coast club but would have had one point less if a Sheffield United 'goal' had been awarded in June.

Bournemouth have not ruled out a legal challenge over the failure to award a key goal against their relegation rivals Aston Villa.

The Cherries have been relegated to the Championship after Villa finished the 2019-20 season one point ahead of them.

Villa secured a point in their first game of the restart at home to Sheffield United on June 17.

Hawk-Eye statement on the goal line incident during Aston Villa v Sheffield match this evening. pic.twitter.com/I2u5lqKMqe

— Hawk-Eye Innovations (@Hawkeye_view) June 17, 2020

The Blades had a goal ruled out when Villa goalkeeper Orjan Nyland caught a free-kick and stepped back over the line carrying the ball with him.

Goal-line technology providers Hawk-Eye issued an apology after the match, saying all seven cameras focused on the goal area had been "occluded" and that it was the first time in over 9,000 matches that its cameras had been obstructed to such an extent that the technology could not detect that a goal had been scored.

Neither the on-pitch referee Michael Oliver nor the VAR manually overturned the goal decision system.

The PA news agency understands the Bournemouth board is likely to discuss this week whether to pursue legal action.

Under the VAR protocols set out by the International Football Association Board, which governs the laws of the game, a match is not invalidated because of a malfunction of goal-line technology or any wrong decisions involving the VAR.

Players such as Nathan Ake could be on their way out of Bournemouth following the club's relegation (Mark Kerton/PA)

The Premier League declined to comment, while Hawk-Eye has yet to respond to a request for a comment.

Deloitte's Annual Football Review 2020 found the Cherries had the joint highest wages-to-turnover ratio – 85 per cent – in the Premier League based on 2018-19 accounts.

It reported that the club spent just under £111million on wages out of a £131m total revenue, and lost £32.4m in the period. Over £115m of the club's total income came direct from the Premier League.