The Premier Laegue is seeing another weekend of controversial VAR calls, and fans are yet again voicing their frustration with the video refereeing system.
Liverpool's James Milner was particularly disenchanted with VAR on Saturday, claiming that the technoogy is causing him to fall out of love with the game. The Reds have felt hard done by VAR this season, with Jordan Henderson's disallowed late winner against Everton in the Merseyside Derby a particular sore point. Sadio Mane was milimetres offside in the build up, causing the goal to be disallowed.
However, it doesn't need to be this way - at least on those milimetre offside calls.
A potential fix for the system could already be in use, over in the Eredivisie. The Dutch league gives a margin of error on the assistant referee's call, to avoid those instances when someone's armpit causes them to be offside.
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Using the same technology, the league simply has 5cm wide lines on screen, rather than the razor thin one-pixel ones of the Premier League. If the lines are touching, then VAR won't intervene - meaning there is effectively a 10cm margin of error for the assistant's decision.
It is a very similar system to what has been used in cricket successfully for years, where the umpire's not out decision on LBWs is upheld unless over 50% of the ball is shown to be hitting the stumps, or when given out, it is shown to be 100% missing.
Such a system would go against Fifa's current rules, which the Eredivisie is ignoring. However, the Premier League has shown interest, with head of refereeing body, PGMOL, Mike Riley, asking for feedback on the idea - according to the Daily Mail.
Thoughts on VAR in the Premier League?
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Let us know in the comments.
Featured Image Credit:Topics: Referees, Premier League, Eredivisie, VAR