VAR has not exactly been a popular addition to the Premier League.
Lengthy checks, a lack of clarity to supporters inside the stadium and some seismic errors – such as that famous disallowed goal by Luis Diaz – have led many to question whether Premier League football was actually better before the introduction of the Video Assistant Referee.
“Something doesn’t feel right.”
Gary Neville says the VAR check for the disallowed Luis Diaz goal was ‘too quick’ and questions why the lines weren’t drawn on 🤔 pic.twitter.com/UbaP5iXyb5
— Sky Sports Premier League (@SkySportsPL) September 30, 2023
On the contrary, we would still suffer without it, a notion reinforced by the fact Michael Oliver recently failed to penalise Liam Roberts for almost decapitating Jean-Philippe Mateta until VAR urged him to act.
Over four years on from VAR’s introduction to English football, it is worth looking back at one promise the Premier League made which has not been kept.
What the Premier League promised about VAR
Back in August 2019, the Premier League got Alan Shearer to film a series of informational videos regarding VAR – explaining the basics of the technology we are all now familiar with.
However, there was a now-controversial section which emphasised how sparingly VAR would be used.
On behalf of the Premier League, Shearer stated: “The Premier League is setting a high bar for VAR involvement. The philosophy is minimum interference, maximum benefit, keeping the pace and passion we all know and love.”
We asked @AlanShearer to talk us through some of the finer details of VAR in the #PremierLeague
A thread 👇 pic.twitter.com/QIS7q3emKZ
— Premier League (@premierleague) August 8, 2019
Other dubious lines include “we don’t want to unnecessarily delay the game” and “most of the time, you won’t even notice” – the latter of which has turned out to be a total lie.
With VAR coming to the Premier League, every goal will be checked.
Here’s how it will help when reviewing the phase of play that led to the final effort… pic.twitter.com/yfFjGgCQDY
— Premier League (@premierleague) August 8, 2019
Only recently, the FA Cup clash between Wolves and Bournemouth involved a stoppage of eight minutes as VAR checked whether a goal from Milos Kerkez was offside.
Before that incident, the longest VAR check in the Premier League lasted five minutes and 37 seconds – occurring in a match between West Ham and Aston Villa in March 2024.
What the Premier League did to try and speed up VAR
Ahead of the 2024/25 campaign, Tony Scholes – Chief Football Officer for the Premier League – and Howard Webb announced a new term called the Referee’s Call.
It effectively means, unless those in the VAR booth over at Stockley Park can see the referee has made a clear error, they will refrain from arguing against him.
When asked if he hoped this rule would speed up decision making, Webb – Chief of the PGMOL (Professional Game Match Officials Limited) – answered: “I hope that having this clearly established threshold in place will mean the VARs can recognise quickly if something is or isn’t clearly and obviously wrong.”
Ultimately, it does not feel any different to how VAR operated before – the lack of progress regarding the technology since 2019 has been highly disappointing.
