BOSSES WANT BIG SCREENS

REFEREE bosses want to use big screens in stadiums in an attempt to help solve the VAR shambles. Premier League and FA chiefs are keen to explore that as the next step after the fall-out from Saturday night’s farce at Anfield.

West Brom’s FA Cup win at Liverpool was overshadowed by the controversy surrounding referee Craig Pawson and Video Assistant Referee Andre Marriner (left). Their mix-up left fans in the stadium in the dark, and now the PGMOL – Professional Game Match Officials Limited – and FA will look at utilising big screens.

At first it will not be to replay contentious incidents, but to let the crowd know that a VAR review is taking place.

The VAR system will provide a “slide” to all clubs, which can be shown on big screens to notify fans a VAR is occurring.

They are also not ruling out in future the possibility of showing what the VAR has seen, so the fans in the stadium can observe replays of the key incident.

Currently, only TV viewers can see what was reviewed as the VAR experiment is used this season in the FA Cup and League Cup, before potentially being used in the Premier League next season.

Arsenal had the technology to show that a review was taking place in their League Cup semi-final with Chelsea but there were no incidents.