The fourth round of the Emirates FA Cup provided massive shocks including Plymouth, who are bottom of the EFL Championship, beating top of the Premier League, Liverpool. However, it’s the final round of the competition before VAR is used in all Premier League grounds. So let’s look back and see if VAR is necessary for the game.
Video Assistant Referee has been used at the highest of levels for the best part of a decade, having first been introduced for the 2017/18 season in the MLS, before being fully introduced to the world at the World Cup in Russia. It’s intention was to help aid match officials in the key match incidents: Straight Red Cards, Penalty Kicks, Goals & Mistaken Identity. But the technology’s usage has had its fair share of controversy, especially in England.
The expectation of VAR from many football fans was to cut human error entirely but with the system still ran by human referees and the term ‘clear and obvious’, there would still be a lot of subjectivity and mistakes in the key match incidents or KMI for short, highlighted no better by the “significant human error” of Darren England who failed to intervene as VAR during Spurs vs Liverpool last season.
In 19/20, which was it’s debut campaign in the Premier League, the pitch-side monitor wasn’t even used which shows that VAR is still developing as a system to this day. Statistically, the 24/25 has been the best season so far, with VAR errors down 80%. Many fans fume at the delay through VAR, by making a case that it has a negative effect on the atmosphere as it leads to fans not being able to celebrate goals fully, even though I’d argue the opposite, with VAR adding to the atmosphere, adding drama and tension especially if it’s a really massive moment in the match and could be game-deciding.
But even that is down significantly this season, from 70 seconds per game to 25 seconds per game, and this is without the Semi-Automated Offside Technology (SAOT), which will likely be implemented in the Premier League this season. The PGMOL aren’t entirely happy with the system at the moment, not helped by the fact that the Premier League used Nike balls or Puma balls from next season, which means they won’t be able to use the chip used in Adidas balls, which was showcased at the 2024 Euros. This means that there will still have to be judgement in deciding the kick point.
In the Carabao Cup semi-finals, it was the first time where the referee would announce the decision following a review to the crowd. Solanke’s disallowed goal was initially given on-field before Stuart Attwell overturned his decision for an offside in the build-up. Spurs manager Ange Postecoglu, who’s been frustrated with VAR all season, said that the changes to VAR are damaging the sanctity of the English game.
Even with the improved VAR, there are still calls from many to get rid of it entirely but, in my opinion, both rounds where Premier League clubs have been involved in in the FA Cup have shown why the technology is necessary. The FA and PGMOL decided to not have VAR until the fifth round as it felt unfair to other fixtures that weren’t played in Premier League stadiums which wouldn’t have had VAR.
FA Cup 3rd Round: Arsenal 1-1 Manchester United - A penalty was given by Andy Madley for a foul on Kai Havertz by Harry Maguire however replays showed that there was nowhere near enough contact for a penalty to be awarded but there was no VAR to aid Madley. Luckily for Manchester United, it didn’t prove costly as Onana saved the resulting penalty and the Red Devils went on to win the tie on penalties.
FA Cup 4th Round: Manchester United 2-1 Leicester City - Luck went the way of Amorim’s side this time as Harry Maguire’s game winning goal in stoppage time in the second half looked to be offside. Assistant Referee Steven Meredith failed to put his flag up when it was obvious to viewers to be offside on the replay but no VAR could intervene, which denied Leicester City extra-time and possibly a place in the next round of England’s oldest competition.
Overall, even though it can be frustrating at times, VAR is necessary, especially from a refereeing point of view.