The growing need for VAR in the English Premier league
Aside from the drama, the intrigue, and the excitement of the this year's World Cup in Russia, one of the highlights of the biggest football competition on the planet was the use of Video Assistant Referees, or VAR, to help the referees make better decisions and spot incidents that may have gone unnoticed during games. There is no doubt that the benefits far outweighs the negatives of using VAR in games, as seen during the World Cup this summer.
Earlier in April this year, Premier League clubs voted against implementing VAR for the 2018/19 season, arguing that it needed more testing.
The Premier League said in a statement: “The decision came after comprehensive discussions regarding the progress made in VAR trials in English football and key learnings from the many competitions elsewhere using it.”
This decision seems mind-boggling to some, who feel that the level of controversy and incidents that takes place in the Premier League, week-in, week-out, is enough of a reason to introduce VAR.
As expected from the first round of matches, the Premier League did not go without controversies which VAR would have solved. These were decisive moments of games that could have turn the tide of the match the other way.
#1 Arsenal v Manchester City
As a corner was delivered into the penalty box, Benjamin Mendy appeared to pull Shkodran Mustafi to the ground inside the area. Mendy was not looking at the ball, and appeared solely intent of stopping Mustafi getting on the end of the corner. As the ref may have been somewhat obstructed by Granit Xhaka who was in front of him, he may not have seen the incident properly to be sure that it was indeed a stonewall penalty, as replays shows. The VAR technology would have helped him to make a fairer decision and would have probably turned the game at the time of the incident.
#2 Liverpool v West Ham
Sadio Mane scored Liverpool's third goal early in the second half as he beats Lukasz Fabianski from the edge of the box. However, replays showed that Mane was offside in the build-up to the goal, and that the goal should not have stood. Here we go again, VAR would have spotted that and made a decision to rule it out.
It is just surprising that these same clubs will moan at some point in the season that they did not have a decision go their way in a game, and here they are, voting against the system. The Premier League is indeed behind the times without VAR, and something needs to be done quickly.