Lawmakers Call For VAR To be Moderated

Football’s law-makers say the video assistant referee system should not be “too forensic” when it comes to offsides – and should only be used to reverse “clear and obvious” errors.

Five goals in the Premier League were ruled out at the weekend for marginal offsides, leading some managers and players to criticise VAR.

Lukas Brud, general secretary of the International Football Association Board, said: “With VAR we see some things that are going in a direction that we may need to re-adjust.”

He said the body would reissue guidance on VAR’s use after its annual general meeting in February.
“If you spend multiple minutes trying to identify whether it is offside or not, then it’s not clear and obvious and the original decision should stand,” he said.

He added: “What we really need to stress is that ‘clear and obvious’ applies to every single situation that is being reviewed by the VAR or the referee.
“In theory, 1mm offside is offside, but if a decision is taken that a player is not offside and the VAR is trying to identify through looking at five, six, seven, 10, 12 cameras whether or not it was offside, then the original decision should stand.

“This is the problem. People are trying to be too forensic. We are not looking to make a better decision, we are trying to get rid of the clear and obvious mistakes.

“If video evidence shows that a player was in an offside position, he was offside full stop. If it’s not obvious, then the decision cannot be changed, you stay with the original decision.

“We will be communicating to all competitions that are using VAR some updates in the coming weeks, because we are observing some developments that are not particularly the way they should be.”