The English Premier League embraces VAR – It’s about time

It was announced this week that the Premier League would reinstate Video Assisted Referees (VAR) for the 2019/20 season.

It has been used across Europe for over a year and in the World Cup over the summer, but the Premier League has not yet adopted the new system, preferring to trial it in cup games. The introduction of VAR in the Premier League is long overdue. I can’t see any reason we should delay the use of something which will make the game better and, crucially, fairer.

It is well-known that there are incidences of unconscious bias across the Premier League on a weekly basis. It’s not the referees’ fault, but it is hard to remain impartial and goal with between 30,000 and 80,000 people shouting directly at you.

This is why more decisions are awarded to home teams and in places like Anfield and Old Trafford (bigger capacities) you’re even less likely to see the away team awarded contentious decisions. VAR will not fix all of that immediately, but it is a strong step in the right direction to solve these issues and so many more.

Too often, there have been goals incorrectly ruled out for offside (Charlie Austin last weekend was a classic example), goals incorrectly ruled in despite being offside and penalties given or missed because the infringement took place on the very edge of the area, making it impossible for referees to make a correct decision.

Pundits and managers will spend hours analysing videos and moaning about mistakes that referees have made that ‘cost them the match’, but they expect the officials to make a spot call based on only what they have been able to see in a fraction of a second!