There needs to be more consistency in the Premier League

Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) defines video assistant referee (VAR) as “a support tool in the decision-making process of the referee.”

When I first learned of the use of VAR, I was shocked to hear so many fans, players and even managers so opposed to a system built to make the game more fair.

There are four categories of decisions in which VAR can intervene and be reviewed for.

1. Goal/no goal—this is usually to check whether a player was offside or not when the goal was made or a player on the opposing team was fouled during play.

2. Penalty/no penalty—a free kick is awarded to a player when a foul has been committed within the 12-yard box or penalty area during the match.

3. Direct red card—this does not apply to a second yellow card or caution but when a player denies the opposing team player a clear and obvious goal-scoring opportunity, serious foul play, violent conduct or using abusive/offensive language or gestures.

4. Mistaken identity—this is when the referee cautions or sends off the wrong player of the offending team.

VAR cannot review any yellow cards even if a player receives two yellow cards in one game, which leads to a red card. It also will not review any free-kick offenses outside of the penalty box unless the foul may potentially have the player receiving a red card for serious foul play.

For years, players, managers and fans of the sport cannot agree on whether or not VAR is helping or hurting the sport.

I for one am all for VAR. I think any way we can make the sport more fair and more enjoyable to watch I am all for. However, I do think that there needs to be more clarity and communication between match officials because it seems like the Premier League can’t get it together.

As of Oct. 30, out of all the VAR decisions made within the first 10 games played this 2023-2024 season, a total of 22 have been overturned and one rejected.

There has always been talk of VAR since its introduction to the Premier League 2019-2020 season.

However, the recent match between Tottenham Hotspurs and Liverpool caused an uproar and even more conversation about the use of VAR in the Premier League.

If I was watching any soccer game that weekend, it was the Tottenham Hotspurs vs Liverpool one.

Both teams were undefeated at that point. Although I am not a supporter of either, I do have a soft spot for Liverpool as they include some of my favorite players. My family are notorious Arsenal FC supporters, who are rivals of Tottenham Hotspurs—so if I was rooting for a team, it was not them.

This game was intense from the start. It was only the seventh match of the season, and I would argue this was one of the most exciting matches of the season.

Within 26 minutes of the first half, there was already a red card handed to one of Liverpool’s midfielders, Curtis Jones, for a foul on Yves Bissouma. It was initially a yellow card, but after a call to the VAR monitor, the original decision was overturned and he was given a straight red card. This left Liverpool down to 10 men on the pitch.

A couple of minutes after the red card was handed to Jones, Mohammed Salah’s through ball finds Luis Diaz, and Diaz scores to get the first point onto the scoreboard, giving the away team a 1-0 lead in the first half.

Unfortunately, the flag went up and the goal was ruled offside. As I was watching the game, I initially thought Diaz was onside and that the goal should’ve counted, but I wanted to wait for VAR intervention for them to draw the lines to confirm.

No lines were drawn to check whether it was offside or not, even though the replays showed Diaz was clearly onside—behind the last defender when Salah made the pass to him.

The play continued.

According to the rules, the only way the referee can ‘review’ an incident once play has been restarted is the case of “mistaken identity or for a potential sending-off offence relating to violent conduct, spitting, biting or extremely offensive, insulting and/or abusive action(s).”

So the game went on, and in the 36th minute Spurs’s captain Son Heung-min scored.

However, thanks to a goal from Cody Gakpo in stoppage time of the first half, Liverpool were able to equalize and went into half time tied one to one with the home team.

Going into the second half, the game only got wilder.

Liverpool, a team playing away, down to 10 players within the first 26 minutes of the first half, you think to yourself, “how can it get any worse?”

Then came a silly tackle from Diogo Jota in the 69th minute. This gets him a second yellow which in then leads to a sending off for the Portuguese striker.

The Reds were now down to nine men.

One thing I will say about Liverpool is that they held their own. With only nine players on the pitch, they made sure not to let any Spurs players get even a sniff of a goal.

Unfortunately for the Reds, due to an own goal, Liverpool’s defender Joel Matip gives the home team the lead.

Some may argue that the goal from Diaz earlier wouldn’t have affected the game down the line if it was ruled onside. But what I would say to counter that is how do we know? We will never know whether or not that goal would have led to the boost Liverpool needed, especially after the red card for Jones, which could’ve led to another goal. On the other hand, maybe they still would’ve lost the game anyways. But what I am trying to stress here is that we will never know because of a simple miscommunication between the match officials.

This is what I find so troublesome when it comes to VAR—there is no sense of clarity when it comes to the application of VAR in the Premier League. There needs to be more consistency and better communication between the officials. Sometimes some of these calls affect teams down the line when it comes down to one or two points and teams are fighting for the title later in the season.