The lack of communication around VAR decisions to fans in stadiums and watching on television is a “huge missed opportunity” according to the boss of a key Premier League and Champions League rights holder.
More than three quarters of match-goers (79.1 per cent) and two-thirds of TV viewers (65.4 per cent) rated their experience of VAR as either poor or very poor in a survey of almost 10,000 fans published by the Football Supporters’ Association last month.
Eighty per cent said fans should be able to hear live discussions between the VAR and the on-pitch referee, something not allowed under the current laws of the game.
TNT Sports, which replaces BT Sport from Tuesday, has pledged to be ‘Right By The Fans’ and believes supporters deserve greater visibility of the decision-making process.
Asked what influence TNT Sports could have on the Premier League and UEFA via its rights deals, Andrew Georgiou, the president and managing director of Warner Bros Discovery Sports Europe, told the PA news agency: “We can only share our position and we have shared our position with both UEFA and the Premier League who are our partners, and that is to say VAR is a really important moment in the sport.
“And at the moment we cannot tell the audience what’s going on, and that’s a challenge and I think it’s a huge missed opportunity.
“We would welcome a change that allowed us to share more about what’s going on between the referees in order to help educate the audience about the decision-making process, which I think will also help to defuse some of the misunderstandings around why some decisions are or are not made.
“I think it’s a massive positive if we can get that right.”
FIFA is currently trialling a new protocol in its competitions – including the Women’s World Cup which starts later this week – allowing referees to communicate the final decision at the end of a VAR check to stadium and television audiences.
Asked if that went far enough, Georgiou added: “We’ll take everything we can get. Honestly, I think the more you can share the better off you’ll be because, again, fans just want to understand and they can still disagree, but at least they know what they’re disagreeing with.
“When we talk about being ‘Right By The Fans’, the more we can share with them, what’s going on, the more we can engage with them about whether they agree or not. And that’s got to be our goal.”
Domestic leagues are also in favour of broadcasting the two-way audio between referees and VARs live, with 25 out of the World Leagues Forum’s 41 members in support in a survey published last month.
The Premier League, a member of the WLF, has not said which way it voted in the survey.
Howard Webb, the chief refereeing officer at Professional Game Match Officials Limited (PGMOL), appeared on Sky Sports’ Monday Night Football programme in May to review a number of VAR decisions taken earlier in the season, when for the first time the discussions between referees and VARs were heard.
PA understands PGMOL is looking to make such appearances a more frequent feature of the coming season, with Webb determined to make refereeing and the VAR review process more transparent within the limits imposed by the laws of the game.
Villa 'deserved more' from draw with Palace, says Emery
Unai Emery suggested Aston Villa "deserved more" than a point after coming from behind twice to draw 2-2 with Crystal Palace at Villa Park.
The result sees Villa's winless streak extend to six matches across all competitions (D2 L4), equalling their longest run without a victory under Emery (also six in April-May 2024).
After Ismaila Sarr's early opener, the hosts needed Ollie Watkins to pull them level before Ross Barkley cancelled out Justin Devenny's strike with 13 minutes to go.
Yet having seen a penalty saved and hitting the woodwork, Emery felt his team should have got more from the match.
"We deserved more, but we made some mistakes that we need to correct. We had chances to score, we came back. The penalty was a key moment," he told Sky Sports.
"In the second half, we pushed and felt close to scoring, but we have to accept one point."
Youri Tielemans had the opportunity to put Villa ahead on the stroke of half-time from the spot but placed his shot at a saveable height for Dean Henderson, who guessed the right way.
It allowed Palace to break down the other end through Sarr, who squared to Devenny to send the visitors into the lead just before the break.
Emery admitted his players are "concerned" about their vulnerability in transitions and rued the mistakes being made.
"Here at home, we were thinking how strong we were, winning 15 games in a row and how we can recover confidence, impose our gameplan. We are losing some opportunities. We are conceding a few chances for the opponent and making some mistakes," he told reporters.
"We are not getting three points but deserving here at home to win. We played well against Arsenal, Bournemouth, Man United and here. But we are making mistakes and they are punishing us.
"Overall we had more chances, we dominated the match. We have to correct matches where we play like we did today and get more points."
Villa led their opponents comfortably on expected goals (xG), accruing a total of 3.18 compared to Palace's 1.27.
The visitors also had key players Eberechi Eze and Adam Wharton out, leading Oliver Glasner to be pleased with his side's fighting display.
"I'm very proud of the team's performance. We’re missing some key players in attack, but we still scored two amazing goals," he said.
"I'm very proud how they played together, worked together, fight together and believed in getting a point here.
"Overall, it was a good performance for us, and we go home very pleased with the point."
Leverkusen were 'bullied' early on in Heidenheim win, says Alonso
Bayer Leverkusen manager Xabi Alonso was critical of his team's poor start in their 5-2 comeback victory over Heidenheim on Saturday.
The current Bundesliga champions went two goals down inside the opening 21 minutes at the BayArena, before battling back to hammer their visitors.
The teams went in level at half-time, while Patrik Schick completed a hat-trick in the second half to secure their second victory in seven league games.
"The first 20 minutes were hard, hard on the pitch and hard mentally," Alonso told a press conference.
"They bullied us in midfield. We could not find any good situations.
"We then managed to find better solutions after the break, and we were more stable. That was the key to the better second half."
Leverkusen are fourth in the Bundesliga, nine points behind league leaders Bayern Munich. They improved significantly after Heidenheim forward Marvin Pieringer was taken off injured in the 28th minute, having suffered due to his pace prior to that.
"We had a bit of a doubt at the start, it was too hectic, we were too nervous," he added.
"We could relax a bit during the break, and then we saw a much better second half, with more control and more stability. Mentally, we were much better."
Aside from their poor start, Alonso singled out Schick in particular for praise after the game, with his perfect hat-trick having helped win the match for the hosts.
Schick has now scored 3+ goals in a Bundesliga game on three occasions for Leverkusen - only Ulf Kirsten (seven) has done so more times for the club.
"It was a perfect hat-trick. It is so important for a striker to get into this rhythm, to have that feeling and with us having a lot of matches during this time," said Alonso.
Arsenal's improved form after Odegaard's return 'not a coincidence', says Arteta
Mikel Arteta insisted it was "not a coincidence" that Martin Odegaard's presence led Arsenal to a 3-0 victory over Nottingham Forest in one of their best performances of the season.
Arsenal's win was their 2,000th in English top-flight history, making them just the second side to reach this milestone after Liverpool (2,068).
Odegaard had been sidelined through injury since September with an ankle injury sustained while on international duty with Norway.
He returned to the starting line-up last time out against Chelsea and now has two assists from two since his return after setting up Bukayo Saka for the opener against Forest.
Arsenal ran out comfortable winners after Thomas Partey and Ethan Nwaneri extended their lead and Arteta is confident the influence of his captain helped.
"It's not a coincidence. The team flows in a different way when [Odegaard] is playing," he told BBC MOTD.
"I think we started really well. The sense I was getting in the last 48 hours after the international break, the boys coming together and were all at it.
"It was good to see the impact of the substitutes [Thomas Partey - goal; Ethan Nwaneri - goal; Raheem Sterling - assist]. Everyone has to feel important. It was a good afternoon."
Partey grabbed Arsenal's second just seven minutes after entering the pitch, curling into the left corner from outside the box following Arteta's half-time swap for Jorginho.
Four of Partey's seven Premier League goals have come from outside the box. Of all Arsenal players to score more than five goals in the competition, he’s the only one to net more than half from outside the box.
Arteta had particular praise for fellow goalscorer Nwaneri, who, at 17 years and 247 days, became Arsenal’s second youngest-ever Premier League goalscorer, behind only Cesc Fabregas in August 2004 (17y 113d).
"He is the second youngest [Premier League goalscorer] in our history. That's a story in itself. He's brave. You see the reaction of fans, and they were singing 'he's one of our own'," added the Arsenal boss.
"I think we have to put brick by brick and make sure the cement doesn't get dry. Hopefully, we can build a beautiful thing with him."
Arsenal outplayed their opponents, leading them on expected goals (xG) with a total of 1.4 compared to Forest's 0.4 xG.
"On a day like this, you need to be solid defensively and take your chances. Ultimately it was not good enough, and it was three relatively easy goals for them," James Ward-Prowse told Sky Sports.
"We are going to have to improve our defensive structure."
SportsMax is the Caribbean sports channel of choice, committed to providing sporting content of the highest quality to the Caribbean, delivered by a team of highly innovative, passionate and qualified professionals.
(876) 619-7629
digitalmedia@sportsmax.tv
