Saturday 27 / April / 2024
Moscow: Christian Benteke missed out on travelling to Russia with Belgium's World Cup squad but he still got involved in the debate over video refereeing at the tournament — from his holiday swimming pool.
"Do we need VAR to check if this is a dive or not? #WorldCup," the Crystal Palace striker asked on Twitter along with a video of him plunging into the water.
Then he posted: "VAR say it was a dive!" over a doctored photograph showing a Video Assistant Referee (VAR) room at the World Cup reviewing screenshots of the Belgian's acrobatics.
It has been a painful subject for Benteke, who narrowly failed to make his country's squad for Russia.
He was notably accused by his current club of diving to secure a stoppage-time penalty that handed Liverpool a Premier League win in March, 2016 and left Palace dangerously close to relegation.
