Revealed: The longest VAR checks in English football history - and the five-and-a-half minutes officials spent faffing over Antoine Semenyo's 'goal' against Newcastle is NOT number one
West Ham vs Aston Villa - 2024, five minutes & 37 secondsThen the longest VAR break since the technology was introduced, West Ham United had an equaliser of their own chalked off at the beginning of last season. West Ham United vs Nottingham Forest - 2025, six minutes & 14 secondsWest Ham fans really have had a lot to deal with in recent times, haven't they? Six minutes and 14 seconds, to be exact, it took officials at Stockley Park to investigate whether a Nikola Milenkovic flick-on needed chalking off. The strike was eventually given, unfortunately for West Ham, and Forest went on to secure all three points under the guise of Nuno Espirito Santo. It took officials so long to come to a conclusion that both sets of fans began chanting in unison: 'It's not football anymore!'
Source: Metro January 14, 2026 12:16 UTC
