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The Premier League has announced that similar to referees in the National Football League, officials will soon address the crowd in the stadium to explain why a VAR (video assistant referee) decision has been overturned.
The announcement from embattled PGMOL chief Howard Webb has come after a 2023-24 season that’s been overwhelmingly plagued with officiating errors to such an extent that some fans, and even some Premier Leauge clubs, believe it’s tainted the integrity of the league, which is considered to be the world’s most prestigious in the game of soccer.
Webb’s announcement, however, falls far short of the necessary changes that PGMOL and VAR must undergo, as “explanations would only be announced when a referee has visited the pitch-side monitor and not VAR checks which do not result in the on-field decision being overturned,” according to ESPN.
This is insufficient for numerous reasons, the first and foremost being that officials are barely sent over to the monitor to review calls. Former and widely-disliked Premier League ref Mike Dean admitted earlier in the season that he intentionally chose not to send colleague Anthony Taylor to the monitor because he didn’t want to give him “any more grief.”
“I said to Anthony afterwards: ‘I just didn’t want to send you to the screen after what has gone on in the game,'” Dean said while appearing on the Up Front podcast. “I didn’t want to send him up because he is a mate as well as a referee and I think I didn’t want to send him up because I didn’t want any more grief than he already had.”
Dean’s shocking revelation perfectly encapsulates the issue with PGMOL as it highlights how much of a boys club it’s become and how they’re more concerned with protecting their own than making the correct calls.
Webb’s comments about the changes to VAR come after another Premier League matchweek was filled with controversial officiating, both in the North London Derby between Arsenal and Spurs and the match between Liverpool and West Ham.