The Premier League has taken a swipe at clubs writing to the PGMOL to complain about contentious refereeing decisions and insisted the introduction of VAR has been a “significant success”.
VAR remains a huge debate this season after a number of high profile incidents, including a Luis Diaz goal for Liverpool at Tottenham that was incorrectly ruled out for offside back in September. Mikel Arteta also labelled VAR “an absolute disgrace” after Anthony Gordon’s goal in a 1-0 defeat at Newcastle last year was allowed to stand.
There has also been a trend – labelled “embarrassing” by pundit Gary Neville – for clubs to publicly complain to the PGMOL. Nottingham Forest followed Liverpool and Arsenal by making a public complaint after Ivan Toney moved the position of the ball before scoring a free-kick goal in a 3-2 Brentford win last month.
But the Premier League has revealed statistics that show VAR has greatly improved the accuracy of refereeing calls. The percentage of correct calls this season – as assessed by the independent Key Match Incident (KMI) panel – now stands at 96 per cent. Two years ago, when referees were assessing decisions, it stood at 86 per cent.
There have been 57 correct VAR interventions this season, and 20 incorrect VAR calls. That is a reduction from 25 incorrect VAR calls at the same stage last season.
In a survey of supporters conducted for the Premier League a majority also remain in favour of VAR.
Speaking to reporters on Wednesday, the Premier League’s chief football officer Tony Scholes said: “If the objective of VAR is to improve the accuracy of decision-making then it has been a significant success.”
He told i that with constant communication between clubs, officials and the governing bodies, the so-called official complaints made this season were harming perception of refereeing decisions.
“It can sometimes be a little disappointing when clubs go public to say they’ve made a complaint to the PGMOL,” he said.
“PGMOL in particular, but sometimes also us at the Premier League, communicate with clubs all the time with regards to referees and decisions in a game. Clubs are aware that Howard [Webb, the referees chief] and his colleagues are open to calls at any point, they do that regularly.
“Frankly I don’t understand sometimes the need for clubs to go public to say they’ve made a complaint when they’re communicating all the time.”
While there is a belief technology is improving accuracy Scholes conceded that there are still significant areas of improvement for VAR, the most notable one being the amount of time taken to reach decisions.
That has increased this season – and Scholes admits there are issues around VAR creating a “poor” supporter experience which need to be addressed.
“Clearly everything in the world of VAR is not perfect and we’re aware of that, we know we have work to do. We’re doing too many checks and taking too long in doing them as well,” he said.
“It’s to a degree understandable given the level of scrutiny these guys are under, from ourselves, from the media and from supporters, but it’s affecting the flow of the game and we’re extremely aware of that. We need to improve that speed while maintaining accuracy.
“The VAR experience for the supporter is poor. It’s nowhere near good enough, we know it’s not, it affects supporters’ enjoyment of the game and we know it needs to change.”
The Premier League is prohibited from playing video or audio of VAR decisions live in stadiums becuase Ifab – the body that decides football’s rules – prohibits it. Scholes says the Premier League will continue to lobby Ifab to allow for “greater transparency”.
In one measure coming soon, referees will soon begin announcing to the crowd their decisions rather than calls just being shown on big screens at the stadium.
And Scholes confirmed that the league is continuing to test semi-automated offside technology, and a decision on whether to introduce it will be put to clubs later this year.
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