If there one thing all Championship team supporters will agree on, it’s the shockingly poor standard of the referees in the division. Of course, we used to have gripes with various refs in the Premier League, but this has been a whole other level of bad.
Positive Vote
However, along with the mass fortunes of TV rights money that promotion would bring to any promoted team, next season in the Premier League will see the introduction of Video Assistant Referees (VAR) to the competition in the 2019/20 season.
Most supporters will be familiar with VAR from the recent World Cup in Russia and this season the Premier League and EFL have kept tabs on its development across the world, and have tested it on domestic soil in the League Cup.
VAR Development
At the shareholder’s meeting last week, the current Premier League clubs agreed in principle, after they were provided with an update on the non-live VAR trials being undertaken by the League and Professional Game Match Officials (PGMOL) this season.
Key learnings from VAR’s use in the FA Cup and League Cup, and other leagues across the world, were discussed in detail.
The Premier League stated:
‘The Premier League’s non-live testing programme will remain in place for the rest of this season, with a continued emphasis on those Saturday afternoons which have several matches being played concurrently, and developing a clear protocol for communicating VAR decisions to fans.’
The League will now formally make a request to the International Football Association Board and FIFA to use VAR next season.
Come on Villa, let’s get promoted and fully join the VAR revolution.
UTV
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