Home » Refs chief expected to back sparing use of pitch side VAR monitors at PL meeting

Refs chief expected to back sparing use of pitch side VAR monitors at PL meeting

By The Boy -

The Premier League is holding a shareholders’ meeting on Thursday.

Mike Riley will present to Premier League chairmen on Thursday (Handout/PA)
Mike Riley will present to Premier League chairmen on Thursday (Handout/PA)

Referees’ chief Mike Riley is set to argue the case for continuing to use pitch side monitors sparingly when he makes a VAR presentation to Premier League chairmen on Thursday.

Bosses from the 20 top-flight clubs will gather for a shareholders’ meeting in central London and the implementation of VAR in the 120 matches played so far will be scrutinised and discussed, the PA news agency understands.

There was initial criticism that the video assistant was not intervening enough, with a high bar set on overturning the decisions of the on-field official.

The VAR identified a clear trip that impeded Deulofeu’s progress in the penalty area and because no penalty was awarded on the field, the referee overturned his decision#WATCHE

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In recent weeks, though, the VAR interventions in overturning on-field decisions have been in the spotlight, with some observers calling for the on-field referees to make greater use of the pitchside monitors.

The decision to use the monitors sparingly was agreed by Premier League club representatives over the summer, as a means to prevent lengthy delays.

There have been 29 overturned decisions in the 120 matches so far, and an average of six checks per game.

Riley, the managing director of Professional Game Match Officials Ltd (PGMOL) is expected to speak in favour of retaining the current system, but if enough club representatives prefer a change of direction then it may be that the use of monitors becomes more prevalent for the rest of the campaign.

It is understood further discussions will also take place around the closing date for the summer transfer window.

Other European countries have not adopted the English model, where the window closes before the season starts. This means that Premier League clubs may be in a position of selling a player to an overseas club and be unable to buy a replacement.

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There was speculation about Christian Eriksen’s future even after the English transfer deadline had passed (John Walton/PA)

The clubs are set to discuss returning the summer 2020 deadline to the end of August, but a vote on this may not take place until February.

Also on the agenda for Thursday’s meeting will be a discussion around the recent report which appeared to show that professional footballers were three and a half times more likely to die of neurodegenerative disease than the general population.

The FIELD study, funded by the Football Association and the Professional Footballers’ Association and conducted by academics at the University of Glasgow, looked at 7,676 Scottish professional footballers born between 1900 and 1976 and compared them with 23,000 people from the general population.

The next stage of the study will look into why this increased likelihood exists.

The clubs are also set to be updated on the start date for new chief executive David Pemsel.

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David Pemsel was announced in October as the Premier League’s new chief executive (Handout/PA)

He was announced as the new boss of the league in early October, and at that time it was stated that he would begin work no later than April 2020.

Pemsel is currently the chief executive of the Guardian Media Group.

A draft calendar for the 2022-23 season, which contains the Qatar 2022 World Cup, is also set to be discussed.

The PA news agency understands that in the initial draft the last round of domestic matches in the top flight and the Championship before a break for the World Cup would be on November 12, nine days before the tournament begins.

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DannyG
DannyG
4 years ago

What about this… each team is allowed 3 VAR reviews. The captain makes the call whether to use it. The on field ref uses the pitch side monitors to review. If the challenge is successful the team get another one – like in tennis. Keep VAR going in the background for offsides but if the offside is not immediately obvious one way or another, do not change the ref’s decision.

DannyG
DannyG
4 years ago
Reply to 

A lot to like about your comment

Tappaspur
Tappaspur
4 years ago

Every time I go to the spurs shop they say “first customer first customer” I was the first customer and let them know it. They’re ok in there man, good for a giggle but not for money off😁

Eleventstonedidiots
Eleventstonedidiots
4 years ago

They should just use VAR for offside decisions and leave everything else to the interpretation of the referee. There can be no debate about offside even if it is only by a hairs breadth its still offside. Everything else even with VAR is subjective.

Tappaspur
Tappaspur
4 years ago

Can’t get 4 seats together for our ladies NLD why not why not!!! Arrgghh

Anonymous
Anonymous
4 years ago
Reply to  Spurs est1882

Agree, there should be an appeal at the very least. I didn’t know it was him who was the actual head. God help us.

Anonymous
Anonymous
4 years ago

Looking at comments on you tube vids, every other comment is the ‘its not VAR it’s how it used’ line…..if I hear that once more I think I will go flywheel psychopathic.
Of course it’s not the inanimate object in itself, it’s not even a point. When somebody gets shot you don’t put the gun in prison, but you don’t give guns to mass murderers and you don’t give VAR to football officials. Football is a unique sport where approx 70/80% of decisions are ambiguous, down to opinion. Goaline technology is over the line or not, that works but the rest isn’t. NFL, Rugby, cricket, Tennis have largely black and white calls. Football doesn’t work that way, and you also have the issue of flow, continuity, the passion of the sport and the pantomime of it. All of which is ruined by VAR. It’s not working in Europe, it didn’t work in the WC, despite people perpetuating those myths, and it’s definitely not working now. Football is different and has been a life affirming, partisan pursuit for over 100 years.

Do NOT F%# with it.

Spurs est1882
Spurs est1882
4 years ago
Reply to  Anonymous

He is the VAR chief…as he said, the technology is spot on, its capable of doing all that is needed and more, sadly, the football community have not used it well. They have not spoken to sports like Cricket, Rugby and Tennis to ask about lessons learnt, and they really have not thought about the basics. What they should have done was started using it without influencing the game to iron out the what-if’s like, the very close call offsides and looked at how long it took to decipher them. Then rolled it out with the improvements but in a limited capacity…the end of the day, in Rugby the Ref ASKS for the TMO, and the same should be with Football. The ref should ask “is there a reason I should/shouldn’t give something” and the VAR then looks. Otherwise game play is not stopped unless VAR has legitimate reason. So for goals that were built up via offsides (ours vs Leicester or Sheff United) it should only go to VAR if the ref suspects something, if, like the Sheffield united goal, no defender has asked for a review, and the linesman has not indicated he was suspect of something, then no VAR.

Anonymous
Anonymous
4 years ago
Reply to  Spurs est1882

It’s been an amazing success for them probably cos no doubt they are profiting nicely off it. Neil Swarbricks comment too were those of a drooling madman.

Anonymous
Anonymous
4 years ago

Of course Riley will keep it the same cos he, Pemsel and the rest of them are running a corrupt operation. They are crooks and should be investigated.

Eddie
Eddie
4 years ago

Can you please explain why my last post was disappeared?There was no swearing or insults in it,I don’t understand.

Eddie
Eddie
4 years ago

This man was arrogant as a referee [like a lot of them] and it seems he hasn’t changed since he moved upstairs.
I don’t doubt the system works fine.it’s just the incompetence of the operators and their insistence of interpreting the rules differently every week it seems.
The basic premise of VAR was to correct clear and obvious errors,but that remit appears to have got lost in translation.

Spurs est1882
Spurs est1882
4 years ago

Read a little of the FIELD study and they linking it to heading the ball and proposing to make it illegal in the junior game with investigations into the adult….what they don’t realise is the average weight of a ball in their “study” group period is considerably heavier than modern versions, especially in wet environments. The study in itself makes other assumptions and doesn’t consider the quality/type of life led by the pro’s of the 7-is compared to now.
On the VAR front, I did watch a video of the chief of the VAR company basically saying VAR was an amazing success and could hope for better. When challenged he basically said its the use and interpretation of VAR that is the problem, the technology is doing exactly what it is meant to. I work in the IT world and this rings so true to so many IT projects, when the focus has been entirely on the technology and no-one had sight on the business needs and surrounding process. resulting in a technically perfect solution that actually makes matters worse. the PL/FA should have done studies into other sports that use VAR, and started to use sparingly at first, with clear guidance created – for example, no one has clearly defined when a ball is “kicked” is it start of contact or when it leaves the foot, yet they are calling offsides by the mm. FYI, I think Son vs Leicester was closer than Sheff United vs us, and neither of them could you clearly see the foot kicking the ball and the exact moment of contact, this would lead me to suggest the process should have defined a tolerance level for the offside, i.e unless its 6inchs or more then its onside, or unless its clearly offside (and set a review time) then you go with on field call.

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