Why VAR was not in use during Tottenham vs Nottingham Forest

VAR was temporarily suspended during Tottenham Hotspur vs Nottingham Forest in the Premier League on Monday after a fire alarm sounded at its Stockley Park control centre.

Sky Sports commentator Seb Hutchinson alerted viewers to the fact as the two sides resumed play for the second half.

He announced: "A few changes made by either side. Also hearing some information from the VAR hub at Stockley Park that a fire alarm's gone off so VAR not in operation for the time being.

"We'll keep you updated but we hope everything's okay, that it's not a fire and only an alarm."

It meant referee Peter Bankes and his assistants Marc Perry and Nick Greenhalgh were forced to operate for a brief time without the help from the VAR or newly-introduced semi-automated offside technology in the event of any decisions.

However, thankfully the officials were not required to make any tough calls in brief spell that they were eithout.

Sky's announcement was subsequently followed by statement from the Premier League's Match Centre on X, published at 9.08pm.

It read: "The match will be operating without VAR until further notice due to a fire alarm at the VAR Hub at Stockley Park."

It was followed up by another at 9.09pm that stated: "VAR is now back up and running."

At the time of the unfortunate mishap, Nuno Espirito Santo and Forest were 2-0 up against his former side Spurs. Elliot Anderson and Chris Wood had struck before the break.

But showing just how important the technology is, the latter had seen another striker ruled out retrospectively as he had trailed offside.

This is also not the first time this same occurrence has happened this season as the VAR team were forced to vacate their Stockley Park control centre when the fire alarm went off during Ipswich Town vs Manchester United last November.

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