WeeklySA_AdminWHAT IS NEW?: Quicker decisions and fewer interventions plus near-live explanations of calls on social media platform X
By Sports Reporter
The 2023-24 Premier League season ended with Wolves triggering a vote to scrap the use of video assistant referees after a season of acrimony around the standard of refereeing and impact of technology on football.
Wolves lost the vote 19-1 but the Premier League promised to improve VAR.
As VAR enters its sixth season in the top flight, the Premier League says fans can expect quicker decisions, fewer interventions, more emphasis on backing the referee’s judgement – plus “near-live” explanations of VAR calls on social media platform X.
BBC Sport outlines the key talking points and changes, following briefings with the Premier League and referees’ chief Howard Webb this week.
It was announced this week that the Premier League Match Centre, external account on X will post “near-live” explanations of VAR decisions. The sport’s lawmakers Ifab have ruled out broadcasting the in-game discussions between officials as audio or video as “too chaotic”, but are continuing trials of referees announcing decisions to the crowd, as seen in the 2023 Women’s World Cup.
So for now, Premier League chief football officer Tony Scholes and Webb say that to improve the experience for fans at top-flight games this season they plan to “put more replays on the big screens” and make more use of social media.
Scholes said the Premier League are “potentially” going to trial in-game announcements, but not just yet because “with the changes we’re making we don’t want to put additional pressure on the referees”.
Webb hosts a regular show called Match Officials Mic’d Up which plays out the audio discussions between referees and the VAR around selected key decisions. He said he was “somewhat disappointed” by Wolves’ bid to scrap the technology. Since VAR was introduced, the guidance for its use has always been to correct “clear and obvious errors”. That measurement can also be subjective.
‘Clear and obvious’ remains the key test. But Scholes said they have a “six-point plan” approved by clubs and explained to players, which includes Introducing a “Referee’s Call” approach similar to cricket with VAR as a “safety net”
“Reaffirming a high bar” for VAR intervention – not re-refereeing subjective decisions made by on-field officials Making sure people understand VAR will not achieve perfection
Scholes explained: “When we do see [VAR] we’ll see it applied quicker so that the delays that occurred after the incident at Liverpool last year which damaged everybody. I think you’ll see a reduction in delays and fewer VAR interventions.”
Webb said: “We have the lowest intervention rate of all the major leagues already. It is 0.29 interventions per game.”
“What you will see is more efficiency. We know here that people don’t want forensic examination when that’s not necessary. We’re looking for those clear errors that should jump off the screen and if that doesn’t exist in the situation then ‘check complete’ and we move on.”
“We acknowledge there are areas we can do better – there were some high-profile situations last season which resulted in clear errors not being rectified. That’s our role to fundamentally rectify those clear errors and to do that as effectively and efficiently as possible.” The Premier League said its own figures showed the overall number of correct decisions in matches was at 96%, compared with 82% before VAR was introduced.
There were 31 incorrect uses of VAR last season – a mixture of wrong interventions, VAR intervening when it should not have done, and VAR not intervening on a clearly incorrect on-field decision. There were 35 the season before.
There were 105 correct VAR calls last season, the same as 2022-23 but with fewer mistakes.
More than 1,300 key decisions were assessed – on-field and by the VAR.
