Premier League club owner weighs in with rule change after perceived VAR injustice

Premier League refereeing is the dominant subject of debate after almost every match. That's as true now as it was before the introduction of VAR, but the process that affects decisions in the top flight is slow and imperfect, adding to growing frustration.

Questionable decisions are more difficult to stomach when they take many minutes to be made and re-refereeing is becoming a threat to the enjoyment of some Premier League supporters for whom a technically correct decision isn't worth the delay.

Waiting for the VAR outcome can be a tedious experience in its own right but the time taken to get there also invites officials to pick over the details of an incident with absurd granularity.

Burnley co-owner wants a VAR time limit

One of the teams to have fallen foul of an elongated VAR check in recent days was Burnley, whose epic home game against Brentford culminated in a disallowed Ashley Barnes goal that would have made it 4-4 at Turf Moor.

It was the second disallowed Clarets goal of the afternoon and left the relegation-threatened side with nothing to show for a gutsy performance. Manager Scott Parker was evidently frustrated and Burnley co-owner JJ Watt has put forward a fix for VAR's perceived ills.

Watt has been a minority owner of Burnley since 2023. A former defensive end with the Houston Texans and Arizona Cardinals, Watt knows plenty about playing in a sport littered with video reviews.

Speaking to Men in Blazers, Watt railed against the length of VAR reviews in the Premier League and suggested the introduction of a time limit.

"The whole point of this entire thing at the very beginning was for them to be able to clear up clear and obvious errors," said Watt.

"It was not for us to be finding toenails that are offside by 3cm, it was not for us to be trying to decide with a microscope, ‘Is this off his hand or is this off his hip?’ It was for clear and obvious.

"In my personal opinion, if you turn on that tape and it’s not clear in 60 seconds, leave the on-field decision as it stands."

Ongoing frustrations with VAR throughout the game create a vacuum into which proffered improvements can be drawn. Watt's time limit reflects a popular desire to at least tighten up the detrimental effects on the rhythm of the game.

Other proposals seek to address similar issues by instituting a system of coach's challenges similar to those in place in the NFL and National Hockey League, or by better establishing the primacy of the original on-field decision by the match referee.

The use of VAR to adjudicate subjective decisions unlike most of those experienced by Watt in his NFL days inevitably causes confusion and uproar. Tweaks will be made to its future implementation but that grey area can never truly be resolved.