VAR ‘will boost game’
WEBB: REFEREES WILL MAKE MISTAKES AND THE SYSTEM IS THERE TO HELP
1 299 goals in the MLS and only four were incorrect.
Howard Webb has more experience than most of officiating top-flight football matches and his stint in North America’s Major League Soccer (MLS) has convinced him that Video Assistant Referees (VAR) will only improve the English Premier League.
VAR made its Premier League debut when Liverpool hosted Norwich City at Anfield to kick off the new season last night and it is fair to say there are still plenty in England who question the impact of technology on the game.
Critics of VAR question its speed and whether the drama of the goalscoring moment will be diluted by delays but Webb, who has spent the last two years managing the use of the technology in the MLS, believes those concerns are misplaced.
“The Premier League is not broken, it is a highly competitive league that is refereed well, but because of the speed of it, referees will make mistakes and VAR is there to help,” the former Premier League referee told Reuters.
“There were 1 299 goals in MLS last season, and only four were allowed to stand that should have been cancelled. All of these were checked and in only four did the VAR not do their job properly and
missed an offside or a handball.”
Webb, who refereed both the World Cup and Champions League finals in 2010, is now General Manager of the Professional Referee’s Organisation in the United States.
Unlike the Premier League, where VARs will be sat in a central hub in Stockley Park in west London, Webb has assembled teams at every stadium in the MLS.
There is a VAR, an assistant VAR, someone who communicates to the stadium announcer, and an operator for the Hawkeye software that gives the officials the tools to do their job.
“We have game cam, following the action, which the VAR is watching,” Webb said.
“If they see something that might need another look at, they flick their eyes down to two other screens, where they can see the action on a three-second delay.
“You then hit the big red button, which everybody is using, and the review starts.”
Every goal at every MLS game is reviewed, while other decisions the VAR feels the on-field official has missed can be reviewed, with the referee prompted to take another look on a pitchside television screen.
Webb believes match officials are desperate to get every decision right and he personally would have welcomed VAR when he sent off Dutch midfielder Nigel de Jong for a kung fu kick on Spain’s Xabi Alonso in the 2010 World Cup final.
“To this day, people still bring up that tackle,” he said.
“It is such a clear red card. If there was VAR there, and I am sent to the screen to look at it again, I immediately send him off.” –