5 months ago
97 
Photo by Zac Goodwin/PA Images via Getty Images
It can feel at times as though everyone other than the Premier League and PGMOL have managed to figure out how to execute VAR to a satisfactory standard.
Whatever the ideal implementation of Video Assistant Referee, or VAR, might be, it’s probably fair to say England and the Premier League haven’t managed to get especially close to it, and 2023-24 saw some especially egregious failings by Professional Game Match Officials Limited
Despite being the richest league in the world, the Premier League have appeared to struggle more than other leagues—or UEFA and FIFA—to satisfactorily execute. Growing unhappiness amongst fans, pundits, and even the clubs culminated with Wolves proposing to scrap VAR.
That effort by Wolves to jettison a system that has seemed broken from day one and that nobody involved has yet managed to fix was today rejected by the rest of the clubs though persisting with VAR for another year doesn’t mean anybody is especially happy with it in its current form.
“Premier League clubs today voted in favour of continuing to operate VAR” read a brief statement from the clubs following the vote. “While VAR produces more accurate decision making, it was agreed that improvements should be made for the benefit of the game and supporters.”
That’d be nice. Given the track record of VAR in England as executed by officials who may or may not be comfortable with the tech and who at times seem more interested in finding reasons not to be seen to overturn their fellow officials than get the call right, we won’t hold our breath.
Not that we think those officials are any better without the assistance of VAR. But at least without VAR you could excuse the failings of officials in the richest league in the world as the kind of human error that at times unavoidable while overseeing a quickly moving sport in real time.
