Managers want control over VAR reviews

Premier League considers cricket-style challenges Jamie Carragher: Things have to change

There has been no bigger champion than me for the introduction of video assistant referees in the Premier League this season, but a drastic rethink is required to make it work. It cannot continue in its current form. I still believe in the idea of VAR. I want it to succeed. The way it is implemented must change.

VAR should be a help for referees, not a means for them to become targets for more criticism. It needs to be stripped back down and applied in a limited, non-intrusive way – used only for intervention to remove the absolute howlers the officials on the pitch may have missed.

I spent some time with the officials at Stockley Park before the season and was briefed on how it would operate. I was optimistic and supportive. I came away hoping we would hear about VAR only in cases of serious foul play, penalties being given when the video showed zero contact by the defender, a goal awarded which clearly and obviously should not have stood, or vice versa. When used well, it can be the difference between winning a trophy, promotion or relegation.

I thought VAR would help the referees and ease the pressure on them. Unfortunately, it is having the opposite effect. It is not fair on the officials.

To me, the only way to make VAR operate well is by liaising with the referees and asking how they feel it can be made better.

I am desperate to get a referee on Sky’s Monday Night Football to get their insight into the problems they face. Many are talking about giving them access to a pitchside monitor. I would like to ask if a referee would really want to be a referee at a derby match with 55,000 spectators and two sets of rival backroom staff in their ear as they reviewed an incident.

The problem we have at the moment is rather than every controversial decision being checked, every single decision is being turned into a controversy. It has taken over the game too much, ruining the spectacle.

We are no longer talking about brilliant goals every weekend. We are talking about disallowed ones. It is boring hearing the same complaints every week. As a pundit, I am sick of having to talk about it. As a football supporter, like everyone else in the country I have had enough of waiting several minutes for a decision.

It is creating tension in the stadiums as supporters grow frustrated during every break in play, and furious when seemingly good goals are ruled out on the basis of the smallest margins, or penalty decisions reversed based on subjective calls.

As many have already pointed out, if footage needs to be studied for several minutes, or watched dozens of times before a decision is made, by definition whatever “mistake” the referee has made cannot be clear and obvious.

It means the reason why VAR was brought in – to correct those decisions in a game which should be black and white – has been undermined.

In too many incidents, whether a challenge is a foul or not is a matter of opinion. If there is any contact on an attacking player, you will have a debate as to whether he should have gone down or not. Whether you like the decision or not, it has to be left to the on-field referee to interpret and decide in that moment.

Stopping the game for long periods to review debatable incidents is not what I understood VAR to be about. It was meant to end debate.

Even the use of technology for offside has become contentious. Offside is offside, but the game moves so quickly, the margins are sometimes so tight, there must be absolute trust in the 100 per cent accuracy of the technology with close calls. It sometimes feels like the officials on the pitch are making riskier decisions than they would a year ago because they believe they will be corrected if proved wrong, but the video referees do not want to overrule their colleagues, particularly if they are more senior officials.

I am hopeful there will be a version of VAR that works eventually. Everyone agrees the use of goal-line technology has enhanced the game, and I see no reason why an official watching the video cannot assist the on-field referee if there is an obvious, non-subjective error.

What we have at the moment is too messy, and I fear carnage during the busy festive period when every game is inevitably dominated by VAR interventions and complaints.

It saddens me that, given a choice between the pre-var Premier League and what we have now, I would go back to last season.

I still believe VAR can make the game much better. It needs an urgent rethink to stop making it worse.