VAR set a new record in Serie A with five minutes and 20 seconds to check Tammy Abraham’s offside in the build-up to a Roma penalty against Torino.
There were no arguments when Alessandro Buongiorno brought down Stephan El Shaarawy with a mistimed tackle in the box at the Stadio Olimpico.
However, as Abraham stepped up to take the penalty, he was left standing there for over five minutes.
The Video Assistant Referee was checking for a potential offside in the build-up and it took an astonishingly long time to come to the conclusion that Abraham’s heel was jutting out from the computer-drawn lines.
During the wait, England international Abraham resorted to juggling with the ball just as a warm-up exercise to keep himself in the game.
Roma coach Jose Mourinho was increasingly frustrated on the touchline, asking what was taking so long.
The ‘clear and obvious error’ issue does not apply to offside rulings, because they are objective, so there is only one correct interpretation.