With the Women’s World Cup, African Cup of Nations, Copa America and European Under-21 Championship all to feast on, there has been no let up in the fun for football fans this summer. Yet, it’ll soon be time to turn our attention back to the action on the pitch with the Premier League on the horizon.
While we’ve had our heads turned by the action on the pitch we could be forgiven for forgetting that we’re returning to a new look league in 2019/20 too with the advent of VAR. So, with technology set to become a part of the top flight for the first time, what impact can we expect it to have on the action to come from August onwards?
Different rules for the Premier League
The first thing to stress is that the VAR rules we’ve seen in Uefa competitions, for example, won’t be applied in the same way for Premier League games. This might take some getting used to but the signs are positive that, on paper at least, the rules will be employed more sensibly. Referees will, for example, be giving more leeway to defenders who block shots or crosses with their arms – allaying fears from some pundits that attackers will deliberately be hitting the ball in the direction of opponents’ arms to force more penalties.
Assistant referees will still be asked to raise their flag for offside decisions – unlike in Uefa competitions – but the referee’s whistle won’t be blown under the end of a passage of play. In terms of penalties, on-field officials will be in charge of deciding if a goalkeeper moves early and won’t punish some movement before the penalty is kicked – something that has been more strictly enforced elsewhere. Referees also typically won’t be going over to a monitor to review a decision – and will be encouraged to rely on the advice they receive from those monitoring the VAR feed. Big screens will keep supporters informed of VAR reviews and ‘decisive’ video clips will be used to show the evidence used to overturn a decision.
More penalties or not?
All of the above interpretation will undoubtedly be tested in the early weeks of the season, not least the handball rule and appeals for penalties in general. There’s also likely to be a big spotlight placed on the jostling between players when crosses and corners come into the box.
So, does that mean we’ll be getting more penalties? It’s something to weigh up when considering your bet for the Golden Boot winner (Harry Kane is 5/1 favourite with William Hill). Yet the great influence of technology doesn’t necessarily lead directly to more penalty decisions. In 2018 The Economist looked at evidence from six countries that had VAR in their domestic leagues and found that there was no spike in penalties after VAR. It noted that VAR could cancel out as well as spot penalties.
Red faced celebrations
The introduction of VAR will change the nature of how we react to a ‘goal’. There are inevitably going to be cases in which players wheel away in celebration, crowds leap to their feet and then the bubble is burst by technology – just as with Manchester City’s agonising ‘non-winner’ against Spurs in the Champions League last season.
Players, pundits and fans alike are going to have to get used to that – and to the strange sense of anticipation within a game while we’re waiting to see if play gets pulled back for an earlier infringement.
No end to the arguments
Football fans – and journalists – often spend their time debating decisions for weeks, months and even years after the event. While technology aims to ensure more decisions are right more often, that doesn’t mean the end to the debate, far from it. VAR might well change the way decisions are made and the nature of the debate around them, but it won’t stop us talking about referees and the choices they make. Some things really do never change.
