IFAB confirmed VAR will not be subject to any further law changes at an AGM next year; David Elleray, a former Premier League referee, believes the use of VAR has deterred diving in the penalty area and rejects calls to impose a time restriction on video reviews
Thursday 17 December 2020 11:54, UK
Video Assistant Referees (VARs) have led to fairer games and an improvement in player behaviour, according to the technical director of football lawmakers.
David Elleray, a former Premier League referee, believes the use of VAR has deterred diving in the penalty area and rejects calls to impose a time restriction on video reviews.
Elleray maintains accuracy is more important than the speed of a decision.
"In broad terms, VAR has benefitted football," said Elleray, following an annual business meeting of the International Football Association Board (IFAB). "There are fewer games unfairly decided by clear and obvious errors by the match official.
"There are fewer players getting away with violence on the field behind the referee's back, or indeed getting away potential injury-threatening tackles, which the referee hasn't been able to judge correctly.
"Whether there are more penalties because of VAR, I think that's an interesting debate. We haven't analysed that data, as such, but it's clear that football is fairer. It's also clear that VAR has had an impact on the flow of the game because, inevitably, if you are going to stop the game to look at a replay, that involves stopping the flow of the game.
"I think some of the other benefits are less well publicised but there's evidence that there's a significant reduction in simulation in the penalty area. There's also a general reduction in players mobbing and arguing with referees because they know, very well, that any contentious decision relating to a penalty or a goal is going to be checked, or reviewed, by the VAR.
"So, behaviour is better."
IFAB confirmed VAR will not be subject to any further law changes at an AGM next year.
"There's nothing going to the annual general meeting in March related to VAR and changes to the laws of the game," Jonathan Ford, IFAB director and Football Association of Wales chief executive, told Sky Sports News.
FIFA assumed all operational responsibility for VAR in July and world football's governing body are at the early stages of whether to use automated technology for offside decisions.
"The transfer of responsibilities has gone extremely well", said Elleray. "It has been a very smooth transfer. FIFA are moving forward very well on it.
"FIFA are looking at possibilities of automated decision-making for offside, which, I think, is an area where, sometimes, the general public feel it takes rather longer than necessary. We had an update on that.
"It's very difficult to be prescriptive about how long a review should take. Sometimes incidents are very complicated, so you review. Very early on in the VAR discussions people said, 'perhaps you should put a time limit on how long reviews should be', but that would undermine the purpose of VAR which is to deal with a clear and obvious error. Sometimes, if we say 'you can only take thirty seconds', you need to look at some different angles.
"What we normally say is the longer it takes, the less likelihood it is that it's a clear and obvious error. I know that every country around the world, encouraged very much by FIFA, are trying to help VAR replay operators and referees deal as quickly as they can with reviews. The shorter we can make that delay, the better, but without sacrificing accuracy."
Former Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger, FIFA's chief of global football development, made a presentation on offside this week to IFAB but lawmakers have no immediate plans to adopt his proposals.
"Arsene Wenger did make a presentation with regards to some considerations going forward for offside," explained Ford. "We have got a long way to go before even any form of experimentation, or trials, can take place. All interesting stuff but I think, at the moment, very much for future considerations."
