“Get used to it”, former Premier League referee Mark Clattenburg calls for patience with VAR

Former Premier League referee Mark Clattenburg has told football fans to be patient with VAR. 

Clattenburg was a referee in England's top flight from 2004-2017 and was in charge of some of the biggest matches in world football including the Euro 2016 final between France and Portugal.

The 47-year-old is part of a new campaign by Just Eat, which gives gamers a chance to send in videos of them being wronged by glitches in order to win free food. 

Clattenburg, who is part of the Deli-VAR-y panel will be deciding whether the evidence warrants free food vouchers.

SPORTbible spoke exclusively to Clattenburg, when asked about whether he felt pressure during the campaign, he said: “There's more pressure in this because what people don't want is to be wronged twice and when they've been wronged in-game with glitches, they don't want to be wronged again by the VAR that I’m providing.” 

Clattenburg then spoke about the use of VAR in modern football and told fans to be patient in order to get used to the technology. 

He said: “I think people have just got to get used to how VAR is, if we looked back many, many years ago, everybody wanted technology in football, to help the referee.

“What it has done is brought more goals from attacking free kicks and corners, because there's less holding in the penalty area.

“It has got its benefits, as a matter of fact, decisions on offsides it has got right.” 

The former referee then pointed out that the key to VAR being accepted is consistency. 

He added: “I think the frustration is the inconsistency. I think what people forget is it's still a human being operating technology. It's not technology, solving all the issues. So you've still got human elements and human error. 

“I think people are frustrated that you get some decisions one week and some decisions that aren't happening and I think it's the inconsistencies. 

“I believe the next few years We'll get more and more comfortable with it. I think it'll become more acceptable.”

Clattenburg also encouraged the idea of allowing fans to hear the conversations between the officials. 

He said: “I think everybody wants to see in the future is that we can hear the audio between the referee and VAR so we can actually understand the decision.” 

Just Eat kicked off the new VAR Panel on 28th September for ten days only. If you feel like you’ve been nutmegged by your favourite football game, or fleeced by a flukey friend, send your gameplay clips to [email protected] and if the VAR Panel agrees, you will be compensated with free food on Just Eat.