VAR is not the problem! Why the Premier League’s officials are ruining football | OneFootball

The debate over VAR has intensified once again after Fulham’s disallowed goal against Chelsea and Burnley’s late defeat to Manchester United.

Josh King thought he had given Fulham the lead at Stamford Bridge, only for the strike to be ruled out because Rodrigo Muniz was judged to have stepped on Trevoh Chalobah’s foot in the build-up.

Replays showed minimal contact, yet referee Robert Jones was advised by VAR Michael Salisbury to overturn the decision. Howard Webb later admitted the officials had made a mistake, calling it a ‘misjudgment’.

Just hours later at Old Trafford, Burnley had reason to feel equally aggrieved when a stoppage-time penalty awarded to United condemned them to defeat.

Scott Parker, frustrated by the late call and a controversial call earlier in the match, warned that VAR is threatening to make football ‘sterile’.

High-profile pundits such as Gary Lineker, Alan Shearer, Jamie Carragher and Rio Ferdinand have all voiced their anger at how the technology is being applied. Many fans, too, now believe VAR is killing the joy of the game.

That frustration is understandable. Decisions like the one against Fulham should not be happening, and when they do, the conversation inevitably shifts towards scrapping the system altogether.

Getting rid of VAR is simply not realistic. The reason it was introduced in the first place has been forgotten.

For years, referees in England made outrageous mistakes without accountability. Fans, managers and players all demanded a system that could stop the worst errors from defining matches. VAR was the answer to that demand.

What is happening now is not a failure of technology, but a failure of how it is being used in the Premier League.

In tournaments like the Champions League, the Euros and the World Cup, VAR is far from perfect, but interventions tend to be more measured. The bar for overturning a call is higher, and officials avoid inserting themselves unnecessarily.

In England, however, VAR has become a stage for referees to impose themselves rather than step aside. It sometimes feels as if clubs must manage referees’ egos as much as they manage their opponents. That is the real problem, yet it is rarely addressed.

Scrapping VAR will not fix this. Reforming how it is used, retraining officials to respect its limits, and holding them accountable when they ignore the guidance will. That is where the conversation needs to be.