Former England defender believes VAR should be persevered with
Tuesday 26 June 2018 23:18, UK
Former England defender Gary Neville says VAR is 'imperfect' but insists the system is working well at this summer's World Cup in Russia.
The introduction of VAR has received mixed reviews at the World Cup and it came to the fore on Monday evening.
In a late twist, Spain won Group B thanks to an injury-time equaliser against Morocco that was originally flagged for offside and Iran netted a late penalty after VAR helped overturn the referee's original decision.
Iran coach Carlos Queiroz launched a blistering attack on the use of VAR following his side's World Cup exit, but Neville thinks the process of debating whether the system works isn't as clear as it seems.
"It's not as simple as VAR works or VAR doesn't work," he said.
"It's been imperfect at this tournament - and it will continue to get better.
"Aspects are working really well and aspects of it aren't working well."
In Neville's view, the problems with the VAR system revolve around the time frame afforded to referees when tasked with allowing VAR to intervene and whether the referees in the VAR hub are capable of using the technology efficiently enough.
He said: "That is around the quick decisions that have to be made when a penalty is not given and then the ball goes out of play so you can't change the decision - for me, that is a fault that needs correcting.
"Why are some match officials being trusted to operate technology? They need completely different skills. VAR is completely in its infancy and I don't think it's been a problem using it at the World Cup, as long as they learn from the mistakes to adapt it better in the future."
