Explanations on social media – what’s new with VAR this season?

The 2023-24 Premier League season ended with Wolves triggering a vote to scrap the use of video assistant referees (VAR), following a season of acrimony surrounding the standard of refereeing and the impact of technology on football.

Wolves lost the vote 19-1, but the Premier League promised to improve VAR.

As VAR enters its sixth season in the top flight, the Premier League says fans can expect quicker decisions, fewer interventions and “near live” explanations of VAR calls on social media platform X.

BBC Sport outlines the key talking points and changes, following briefings with the Premier League and refereeing boss Howard Webb this week.

Quick reminder of last season’s controversies…

There were several turning points last season:

• Wolves boss Gary O’Neil called a VAR offside decision “the worst he’s ever seen” and was banned for your behavior

• Liverpool scored a goal against Tottenham offside incorrectly considered due to “significant human error” – prompting an apology, review and widespread fallout

• In February, Premier League director of football Tony Scholes acknowledged that VAR decisions were taking too long and that fans’ experience at the stadium was “poor”

• Forest and their coach Nuno were accused, with the club’s refereeing advisor, Mark Clattenburg, eventually leaving the club, following being denied three penalties in a defeat to Everton. Forest claimed VAR Stuart Attwell was a fan of Luton – one of their relegation rivals – and former Premier League official Clattenburg called the decisions a “joke”.

• Liverpool, Arsenal, Wolves and Forest have issued official club statements criticizing refereeing and VAR standards

The stats: ‘VAR corrected more than 100 errors last season’

The Premier League said its own figures showed the number of correct decisions in matches was 96%, compared to 82% before the introduction of VAR.

It claimed there were just five incorrect VAR interventions last season compared to 105 correct decisions – an improvement on 2022-23, with 11 incorrect VAR decisions versus 105 correct ones.

“In fact, there were fewer mistakes last year than before. A small number of incidents remain in memory,” Webb added.

He also said that referees, including VAR, “only score one in every 25 goals”.

The league’s director of football, Scholes, said the system “will never be perfect” but stated that “four in five want to keep VAR, based on our independent study”.

He added: “That means one in five would get rid of it and that’s a huge minority. And a majority of four in five say we need to improve it.”

Scholes accepts that VAR “has a cost”, but explained: “The cost is partly unavoidable – there are game delays, the fan experience is poor. We know that and we’re not going to get rid of it, it’s an inevitable part of VAR, but our job is to minimize it.

“Our job is to ensure that delays are reduced to the point of reasonableness and that the fan experience is also improved.”

So how will these two points be addressed?

New: VAR explanations on social media

It was also announced this week that the Premier League Games Center account on social media platform X will post “almost live” explanations of VAR decisions.

Sports legislators, Ifab, discarded broadcasting in-game discussions between referees as “very chaotic”, but referee judgments continue announcing decisions to the crowd, as seen in the 2023 Women’s World Cup.

So for now, Scholes and Webb say that to improve the fan experience at Division One games this season, they plan to “put more replays on the big screen” and make more use of social media.

Scholes said the Premier League will “potentially” undergo in-game advertising trials, but not yet because “with the changes we are making we don’t want to put additional pressure on referees”.

Webb hosts a regular program called Match Officials Mic’d Up, which plays audio discussions between referees and VAR around selected key decisions.

Will we see less VAR this season?

Since VAR was introduced, the guidance for its use has always been to correct “clear and obvious errors”. This measurement can also be subjective.

“Clear and obvious” remains the fundamental test. But Scholes said he has a “six-point plan” approved by clubs and explained to players, which includes:

• Introducing a cricket-like ‘umpire call’ approach with VAR as a “safety net”

• Ensuring people understand VAR will not achieve perfection

• “Redefining” when VAR should intervene

• “Reaffirming a high standard” for VAR intervention – not referee “decisions”

Scholes explained: “When we see [VAR] we will see this applied more quickly so that the delays that occurred after the incident in Liverpool last year, which hurt everyone… I think we will see a reduction in delays and less VAR interventions.”

Webb added: “You don’t see that much in the Premier League anyway, our levels of intervention are lower than in any other league anywhere.

“What you’ll see is more efficiency. We know here that people don’t want forensics when it’s not necessary. We’re looking for those clear errors that should jump off the screen and if that doesn’t exist in the situation then check done and move on.”

And the speed of decisions?

In a information document issued by the Premier League to its 20 clubs ahead of last season’s vote to scrap VAR, it said the average game delay for a single VAR check lasted 64 seconds in the 2023-24 season.

This was longer than the 40-second average in 2022-23.

Webb said: “There was undoubtedly more caution on the part of authorities after this [Liverpool’s Luis Diaz] situation.

“I think fundamentally a lot of the frustration doesn’t come from the final decision – when people take a step back, they know the game generates debate – but sometimes that can slow down the game, it can take time to get to that decision. and even if it’s mostly correct, if it takes too long to get there, it can be frustrating.”

When will semi-automatic deterrents be introduced?

One area that has been shown to improve speed and accuracy is semi-automatic offside technology (SAOT).

It will not be available for the start of the new season, but Scholes said the “expectation” is for October.

FIFA first used the technology at the 2022 men’s World Cup in Qatar, and it was also in operation at the men’s Euros this summer.

It is anticipated that SAOT could reduce the duration of a VAR check for offside by 31 seconds. This saves officials time drawing offside lines on monitors.

Scholes added: “We will bring it in when we are absolutely sure it will work properly and improve things. We will be testing it in the first few rounds of the year, it will work in the background.

“We are introducing a new system, a different system that is more accurate than the system used in other competitions.”