Fans will be able to hear VAR recordings after matches
PREMIER League chief executive Richard Masters has confirmed that recordings of audio between Video Assistant Referee (VAR) officials and referees will be made available to fans after matches, writes Amie Wilson.
There has been a call for more transparency in the way decisions are made, even before the introduction of VAR, among fans, with some wanting the referees to be mic’d up so that supporters can hear the conversations.
Football’s lawmakers don’t allow live broadcasts of the audio, but it has confirmed that recordings could be released after the full-time whistle.
VAR has had a patchy start to life in the Premier League after being introduced at the start of the 2019/20 season.
A number of decisions have been questioned, with some involving Leicester City – they were the team most impacted by VAR decisions last season.
Masters, left, said the post-match audios helping to explain the reason behind the decisions is designed to help the system to run more smoothly.
It’s a practice that already takes place in America’s Major League Soccer.
“There is a general view that [releasing the audio] is a good thing,” Masters told the Liverpool Echo.
“There is a desire to be more open with fans about referees’ decisionmaking and how we do that precisely we need to work out.”
The Premier League CEO also gave an update on the status of the League Cup amid pressure for it to be scrapped. “I think the biggest impact of the Uefa reforms are on the League Cup because of the loss of midweeks, so we need to find a solution to that,” added Masters.
“If you talk to Premier League clubs, they want the League Cup to remain, they want it to remain part of the competition, the Wembley slot, the European place.
“That’s one of the things we’ve got to discuss and that’s got to happen now.”
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