Arsene Wenger has had his say on VAR in the Premier League, admitting that fans should be patient with the implementation of the new technology.
VAR was introduced in the Premier League this season and has already caused controversy with a number of high profile errors from officials. Still, the former Arsenal is a fan of the new technology insisting that the Premier League’s use of the system so far has thrown up two key talking points.
“I’m a great defender of VAR. It reduces the number of wrong decisions made.”
“The two main controversial decisions are when the VAR should intervene and doesn’t do it. We saw that in Manchester United game. The second is the interpretations of the rule of handball.”
Whilst Wenger admitted that the Premier League had got it right on the decision to continue the pace of the game, by denying officials the chance to review incidents at the pitch-side monitor.
“The third is the referee leaving the field. We don’t want to waste time to leave the field, England at the moment does it better than any other country.”
Despite the initial teething problems, Wenger felt that things will only get better for VAR, and praised FIFA for rolling out the system across the world game.
“We are still in the beginning and need to improve the speed, better coordination and improve the system. You have to give credit to FIFA for introducing it at the 2018 World Cup in Russia.”
The former Arsenal boss also called for more transparency with VAR, stressing that PGMOL the organisation that provides referees for the league should provide explanations when controversial calls are made.
“I would say that is vital. Those decisions are explained on-screen. PGMOL must come out and explain why, people are intelligent, people want to know. We have to accept that we have to explain things. It will settle, it is a good thing we have gone from 93% to 98% decisions right. There’s more justice.”
