VAR has been in the Premier League for five years, and while the Premier League claims to be 96% accurate, it's still a topic of constant debate: does VAR really make the Premier League fairer and more exciting?
According to Premier League chief executive Tony Scholes, the accuracy rate of decisions has climbed from 82 per cent to 96 per cent since VAR entered the Premier League. This season alone, VAR has had 57 correct interventions and just 2 wrong interventions.
The referee has made 17 mistakes this season without reference to VAR's judgment, such as in the first round of the Premier League against Wolves, when Onana ran into two opposing players and escaped punishment.
The Premier League also admits that VAR isn't perfect, but at least for now VAR penalties are better than ever. Most fans supported the VAR, but the number of supporters did not live up to expectations in the Premier League.
What still needs to be improved? I'm afraid the biggest problem is that the VAR is reviewed too many times and takes too long.
Whenever there is a controversy on the field, the referee will rush to the fourth**, or communicate with the VAR referee team through wireless headsets, which undoubtedly affects the fluency of the game and is also an important factor in the continuity of the player's state.
As you can imagine, when the players on both sides are in a state of intense scramble and extreme emotion, all of a sudden the referee blows the whistle and makes everyone wait for the VAR referee team to review the reply, which is obviously intended to be in the attacking rhythm of the dominant side and also divert the attention of the defender.
The second issue that needs to be addressed is the experience of the fans in attendance.
The Premier League is committed to making all match decisions more transparent, but due to FIFA requirements, the audio or parts of the VAR decision-making process are not fully public, leaving fans and players often known only about the outcome of a decision and almost nothing about the process. This is also an important fuse that often causes controversy in the field.
In addition, thanks to the involvement of the VAR, the average length of the game reached 101 minutes and 41 seconds after 228 league games in the Premier League this season, of which 58 minutes and 29 seconds were played, which is 3 minutes and 31 seconds more than last season.
What is the increase in match length? A total of 92 goals were scored in stoppage time this season, up from 49 last season.
At the same time, in order to avoid further disruption of the pace of the game, the referee has been more severe in the punishment of delaying time, with 145 players already being booked for delaying time this season, more than double the number last season, and 112 players have been shown yellow cards for arguing with the referee.
VAR can be considered the biggest technological revolution on the football field in recent decades, however, there is a gradual process of refinement and acceptance of any new thing. How to make VAR an "invisible" referee on the field? I'm afraid there's still a long way to go.