Referee Bobby Madley has admitted his strong opposition to VAR, calling the technology a ‘monster’.
Video assistant referees have been in the Premier League since the 2019/20 season after its successful use at the 2018 World Cup.
VAR has just finished its sixth season in the Premier LeagueGettyWhilst brought in to assist referees on the pitch, VAR has consistently been a controversial aspect of the English top flight.
Some decisions that many fans perceive to be wrong have sometimes had a huge influence on the outcome of matches.
Red card, handball and offside decisions are some of the contentious incidents involved, with supporters also enduring long checks.
Officials are regularly under the spotlight with VAR but Madley, who has refereed 94 Premier League matches, has been vocal against it.
“As a fan, hate it, hate it. Love the Championship, love League One – I’m still a fan,” he said as quoted by the BBC.
“I love League One because you score a goal, you look at the referee, you look at the assistant, he hasn’t put his flag up, it’s a goal.
“It takes that emotion away from it and football is a game where there could be one moment in the game, one goal, and that’s it.
“To take that emotion away, to have to wait and wait, and what feels like an eternity, as a fan I’m not a huge fan of that experience.”
Madley added: “There’s so much money in football, it’s business-driven. So any mistake is perceived to cost people money.
“And I don’t think most football fans were clambering over each other to get video technology. The players weren’t, the referees weren’t.
Referee Madley says VAR takes emotion away from the gameGetty The technology allows referees to review decisionsGetty“But the people who run football, they are multimillion-pound and billion-pound people, and they had issues with referees getting things wrong.
“I think we’ve got to the stage where people go, ‘Sorry, we’re ruining football with this now’.
“But we knew the monster that had been created. As referees, we knew what was coming.”
Last summer, Premier League clubs voted on whether to keep or scrap VAR after Wolves listed nine reasons in favour of the latter.
However, their bid failed as the result was a unanimous 19-1 in favour of keeping the technology.
The Premier League then said that improvements would be needed ‘for the benefit of the game and supporters’.
VAR is also used in EFL play-off final matchesGettyTowards the end of the 2024/25 season, semi-automated offside was introduced, having already been used by UEFA.
Around 30 cameras that capture footage at 100 frames per second, track exact ball movements and the bodies of all 22 players.
This means video assistant referees now no longer need to manually draw offside lines when reviewing goals.
Read More Details
Finally We wish PressBee provided you with enough information of ( ‘Monster’ – Former Premier League referee admits hatred of VAR )
Also on site :