Premier League clubs have a huge opportunity to fix one of the biggest problems in modern football and inject some joy back into the game when they vote on the future of VAR at next month’s AGM.
Wolves have called for VAR to be scrapped and it will now be discussed at a meeting of all 20 Premier League clubs on June 6 in Harrogate. In order for Wolves’ proposal to pass they will need the support of two thirds of the league (14 clubs) - which at this stage looks unlikely.
VAR has been in place in the Premier League since 2019 but has been riddled with a number of high profile issues and human error, not to mention the confusion for the fans in the stand who are left in the dark while a decision is made at Stockley Park.
Wolves said in a statement: "The introduction of VAR in 2019/20 was a decision made in good faith and with the best interests of football and the Premier League at its heart.
"However, it has led to numerous unintended negative consequences that are damaging the relationship between fans and football, and undermining the value of the Premier League brand.”
The statement continued: “After five seasons of VAR in the Premier League, it is time for a constructive and critical debate on its future.
“Our position is that the price we are paying for a small increase in accuracy is at odds with the spirit of our game, and as a result we should remove it from the 2024/25 season onwards.”
And Wolves are right. VAR is damaging the Premier League and it is sucking the joy out of the game for fans and players alike. The worst case is always around goals and do you celebrate or not for fear that it will be chalked off six minutes later for someone's armpit hair being marginally longer than a defender’s toenail.
When VAR was introduced there was a hope that it would make football perfect and all the arguments had in the pubs after games and talked about on radio phone-ins would disappear as there would be no debate. Decisions would be correct and that would be the end of the matter.
But that is not the case and what we have ended up with is a mess that is not fit for purpose and those that were on the side of it in the first place are still trying to defend it and say that it has made a positive difference, but those people are only kidding themselves.
When Luis Diaz’s goal for Liverpool was incorrectly ruled out at Tottenham for offside earlier in the season, the club released a strongly worded statement that ended with the words: ‘we will explore the range of options available’
And when Nottingham Forest released their bizarre and quite frankly embarrassing statement following their defeat by Everton in April, that statement ended with the words: ‘NFFC will now consider its options.’
Both Liverpool and and Nottingham Forest made reference to exploring their options. But there are no options available. Football should be played for 90 minutes and once the referee blows their whistle then the game is over and the result stands.
There are no other ‘options’.
But the fear is that with the amount of money at stake at both ends of the table and with clubs using this phraseology that we are not far away from a club deciding that their ‘option’ is to challenge the result in a court - and there is no one who wants to see that.
Win, lose or draw, you accept the result at the referee’s final whistle and move onto the next game. But the problem with VAR is that with the promise of what it was going to deliver then clubs could fancy their chances of challenging that off the pitch.
The reality is that it is unlikely that 14 Premier League clubs will back the move to scrap VAR. There is also a good chance that this summer at the Euros we will see VAR work better than we currently do in the Premier League, just as we did at the World Cup in Qatar.
So if Wolves do not get their way in scrapping it completely, then hopefully the meeting in Harrogate will start a discussion between the clubs, Premier League and PGMOL in how to improve VAR. Because at the moment it is not fit for purpose and is sucking all the joy out of the beautiful game.
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