59% of fans believe VAR has worked badly in the Prem, but just 18% believe it should be entirely abandoned

Key takeaways

  • Premier League fans believe VAR is overall working badly by 59% to 26%
  • 72% of regular viewers feel VAR has made watching games less enjoyable
  • Only 18% of fans want the Premier League to stop using VAR entirely, with 68% instead favouring changes being made to how it is used
  • Most fans believe VAR has worked badly in making decisions on penalties and fouls, though just 22-24% feel it should not be used in these areas

This year’s Premier League season was notable for many things, from Arsenal lifting the trophy for the first time in 22 years, to Tottenham avoiding relegation on the last day of the season, to newly promoted Sunderland winning a spot in the Europa League. All of which was in spite of many fans’ pre-season predictions.

One thing that will have surprised few fans, though, is another year of controversial decisions by VAR (video assistant referees), with Labour leadership contender Andy Burnham among fans calling on the league to “get rid” of the system, as “it’s killing spontaneity [and] it’s not getting decisions right”. But how representative is this view among those who regularly watch Premier League games?

Premier League fans do tend to have an overall negative view of VAR, with 59% believing that it has so far worked badly in the competition, relative to just 26% feeling that it has worked well. A further 14% think VAR has neither worked particularly well or particularly badly.

There’s little sign of attitudes towards the technology improving over time, with the proportion of Premier League viewers believing VAR is working badly unchanged from two years ago, as well as in line with the 60% who said it was working badly halfway through the 2019-20 season, the first to use VAR.

And it’s not just a case of the technology working badly, with 72% of fans feeling that VAR has made watching Premier League matches less enjoyable, including a third (35%) who say it has made games a lot less fun to watch. This compares to just 18% saying VAR has made no difference to their enjoyment of games and only 9% who feel the added element has instead made matches more entertaining.

Nonetheless, despite the negativity, there’s only limited appetite to outright “get rid” of the system, with just 18% of fans saying their preference would be for the Premier League to stop using VAR entirely, not much different to the 12% who would be happy for the league to continue using the technology without any changes.

Instead, by far the most common view among Premier League viewers, held by 68%, is for VAR to be kept, but with changes to be made to how it is used.

The changes desired by fans do not appear to be particularly extensive, with most supporting the operation of VAR in all of the main areas where it is currently used in the Premier League. Even at the more contentious end, such as correcting offside decisions, 64% of fans believe VAR should be used.

But although fans might support VAR use in these areas, they don’t think it has been equally effective across the board.

Nearly six in ten Premier League viewers (58%) believe VAR has operated poorly when deciding whether or not a penalty should be awarded, with 52% believing it has been bad at deciding whether or not a foul should be given as a straight red card.

This compares to 37% of fans believing VAR has worked badly in correcting offside decisions, just 24% feeling it has done a bad job at correcting cases of cards being given to the wrong player, and only 13% thinking VAR has been ineffective at confirming whether or not the ball has completely passed over the goal line.

Instead, 83% believe VAR has worked well in correcting cases where a card has been given to the wrong player by accident, 58% feel it has done a good job at correcting offside decisions, and fully 80% think VAR has been effective in confirming whether a ball has passed over the goal line.

See the full results here

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Photo: Getty

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