VAR chief: I give system 7 out of 10!

The Premier League’s head of VAR has given the performance of the technology this season a ‘seven out of 10’ with Neil Swarbrick adamant the furore will die down. It comes after another weekend in which games were overshadowed by VAR calls. Manchester City felt they should have been awarded a penalty 22 seconds before Liverpool opened the scoring at Anfield, while Sheffield United had a goal ruled out for the tightest of offsides. Swarbrick, who oversees VAR for the PGMOL, insists they are getting more right than wrong and that football needs time to adjust if it is to use technology as well as rugby union. he wants to be at nine out of 10 in two years’ time and said: ‘I’m really pleased, honestly, with how we have started out. We have more decisions correct with VAR than without it. ‘I’d give us around about seven-ish. If the mark now is seven — early days — in two years’ time I’m hoping for maybe a eight and a half or nine. We are open to evolving with this. ‘It’s not a case of we’re not budging. We will listen to feedback. I’m comfortable with where we are but there’s no doubt there’s room for improvement. It’s a work in progress.’ Comparisons with rugby union’s use of TMO have been made in recent months. ‘That doesn’t happen overnight,’ added Swarbrick, speaking to the BBC. ‘You’ve just got to give us time.’ On whether fans could listen to a referee speaking with officials at Stockley Park, he added: ‘You cannot use any referee communications like that because IFAB (football’s lawmakers) protocols don’t allow us to.’ Referees’ chief Mike Riley will meet

Premier League chairmen at a meeting in central London on Thursday. Clubs are expected to call on him to authorise the use of pitch-side monitors. After 12 rounds of fixtures, there have been close to 800 checks and 29 overturned decisions, but no referees have used their monitors, like those in other countries. On Saturday, VAR took almost four minutes to decide Sheffield United’s John Lundstram was offside against Tottenham. Replays suggested he was off by what appeared the length of a toe. There have been calls for a time limit to be introduced, with Match

of the Day presenter Gary Lineker suggesting 30 seconds would work for spotting clear and obvious errors. Swarbrick ruled that out, saying: ‘I don’t think you can go down that line and say: “Anything over a minute, we can’t look at”.’ At the start of the season, the PGMOL invited journalists and broadcasters to Stockley Park for tutorials on VAR, with Swarbrick leading the talks and answering questions. ‘It’s hard to put into words the pressure you feel as a VAR when you’re behind the screen,’ he added. ‘When I was refereeing there were incidents where the referee would get criticised. ‘It’s nothing new to us, it’s part of our fabric, our make-up, it’s what we’re used to and we are very resilient in that way. We take criticism on board. The criticism comes from people’s opinions. ‘I could look at an incident where I haven’t given a penalty and be quite comfortable with that. Yet everyone could be criticising me. It’s all about perspective.’