Premier League steps up VAR testing

Premier League officials are facing their most critical test to prove to clubs that video assistant refereeing is fit for purpose, as they stage their first “multi-match” top-flight trial later this month.

VAR testing will take place on all the 3pm kick-offs on Sept 15, when league chiefs aim to establish that they have the technological capacity to deal with the workload posed by a busy Saturday schedule.

The matches will be treated as normal VAR games, but the assistants in the remote VAR hub will not have any communication with the on-field referee.

Testing has been stepped up in recent weeks, with particular focus on ensuring that the nerve centre at Stockley Park, near Heathrow, can cope with multiple incidents at once.

A Premier League source said referees have been encouraged by the use of the technology at three recent Carabao Cup matches at Brighton, Fulham and Leicester.

Former elite referees Mike Jones and Neil Swarbrick are in overall charge of the testing at Stockley Park. Swarbrick said recently that it was “disappointing” that clubs had not already embraced VAR in the Premier League.

Clubs voted in April to wait until officials had more experience, and to see how the system was received in the World Cup. This season VAR is being used at around 60 cup matches ahead of its intended full roll-out in the Premier League next season.

The trials “will allow the officials to get better and quicker at using it, which is what the clubs wanted”, Swarbrick said previously.

VAR is likely to be used in the Champions League next season.