EPL all set for VAR controversies in the upcoming season

The show runners at the English Premier League are clear that Video Assistant Referees (VAR) are guaranteed to cause a good number of controversies in the upcoming season, but they are well prepared for it. For those of you who haven’t heard it as yet, the English top-flight league will introduce VAR for the first time in the upcoming 2019-20 season.

The technology was controversially employed in the FIFA World Cup last year, and then in Champions League as well as few of the domestic cup matches. However, its impact on the English Premier League remains to be seen. Not only is it going to affect the gameplay on the field, it will also change the way people bet on their favourite teams/players. It remains to be seen how reputed football predictions websites are going to adapt to this change.

Confident and well-prepared

Talking to the press, Richard Masters, the interim chief executive of the Premier League said that they are ready to launch this technology after thorough testing. He further informed that they have already spent couple of years working on it, and have been committed to it in their heads for the past two years. Masters agreed to the fact that VAR is indeed going to stir up some controversies as it will directly impact the big decisions of the game, however, they are prepared for all that. Quoting him directly with his comments to BBC, he said, “We have been training and testing and making sure when it happens, particularly on Saturday afternoons when we have got multiple matches going on, that we have a number of VARs trained. We feel that is done and we are ready to launch it.”

Will be sparingly used by the referees

The referees of the English Premier League met last month and discussed their strategy of using VAR. The technology also came under heavy criticism during the recently concluded Women’s World Cup in France, particularly for the number of delays and stoppages caused by it. Masters informed that the referees will be sparingly use the pitch-side video monitors. In his opinion, fans want to see very obvious and clear mistakes being corrected, but would not like any of the matches getting interrupted, or the game becoming slower than normal.

He expects the referees to use the review area sparingly and employ the VAR technology only for the subjective decisions. It’s absolutely clear with them that they are trying something new in the Premier League and are open to refining or improving things if needed in the future. But, corrections cannot be made until trying something out and being open about its workings.

The details related to its usage

In the upcoming EPL season, all the 20 grounds have been equipped with the VAR technology, enabling assessment of decisions from the VAR hub situated in Stockley Park, West London. The technology will only be used for obvious and clear errors related to 4 areas – mistaken identity, straight red cards, penalties and goals.