Lighter touch is paying off
A NEW season means a few changes in the way Premier League games will be refereed and on the evidence of yesterday they are going to be welcomed.
In March clubs were surveyed for their views on refereeing and they fed back their thoughts. Then we had the Euros which were a success in the way matches were officiated. The result we want is players going out to express themselves and on the evidence of the games I saw yesterday which were really competitive, it’s encouraging. It’s impossible to know what impact these changes will have on the numbers of incidents until we have sufficient data.
VAR OFFSIDE
The PL will now use the same approach as we saw at the Euros and if the famous lines overlap then the outcome will be different. So when there is a goal scored, the VAR will judge offside by the width of one pixel, then overlay the thicker broadcast lines and if there is an overlap, the benefit of the doubt is with the attacking team.
And we’ve already seen the system work, allowing Bruno Fernandes to celebrate a hattrick for Manchester United against Leeds with a goal where VAR’s lines overlaid each other. Last season that wouldn’t have stood.
TV viewers aren’t seeing the workings out on their screens which was also the case at the Euros, keeping us in line with UEFA.
FEWER INTERVENTIONS
What we are trying to do is not forensically referee matches and overturn decisions.
Where there is a clear and obvious error, VAR will intervene — that hasn’t changed. But the threshold for an intervention is now slightly higher than last season. We saw that with the Burnley goal against Brighton yesterday. There was a possible foul by scorer James Tarkowski when the corner came across. The foul wasn’t awarded by referee David Coote and VAR didn’t feel it met the threshold for a clear and obvious error.
HANDBALL
This season, a goal will only be ruled out if the ball hits the arm/hand of the goalscorer and he scores immediately. Previously if the ball accidentally hit the hand/arm of one player and he passed to a team-mate to score, the goal wouldn’t have stood. Now it will. The example I use is from a couple of seasons ago when Robert Snodgrass scored for West Ham against Sheffield United after Declan Rice had accidentally handled in the build-up. This season that would be a goal. In terms of defensive handball, we’re also back to ‘expected position’ of a player’s movement. Is a player making himself unnaturally bigger?