Relegated and relieved, West Ham fans relish life without VAR | OneFootball

Relegated in May after 14 seasons in the Premier League, West Ham have settled into a VAR-free Championship. Many supporters say the football feels purer and more spontaneous.

According to L'Équipe, social media threads and the fanzine Blowing Bubbles hail more fluid matches and a joy many had not felt for years. The report also cites a Football Supporters’ Association study from March 2026, with 75% of Premier League fans against VAR and 91% saying it blunts goal celebrations.

A West Ham fan for three decades, Benji Lanyado describes the release of being able to celebrate without waiting for checks. He recalls the last-minute goal in the 2023 Europa Conference League final, a 2-1 victory over Fiorentina, when he briefly froze for fear of offside.

A tech entrepreneur and founder of Picfair, he says he once thought technology could make football fairer. He now prefers the sport’s imperfections, viewing them as part of the entertainment.

Even if West Ham suffer from a missed call, he expects fans to take it with good grace, saying the raw surge of emotion outweighs the odd wrongly given goal. Some even claim they would rather not go up, though Lanyado accepts missing promotion would hurt and that VAR’s return would blunt the joy.

Source: L'Équipe

“Artificial intelligence was used to assist in creating this article based on reporting from the original source quoted.”