Skip to main content

The Premier League has reassured football fans that a 'high bar' will be set when video assistant refereeing (VAR) is introduced to the top tier of the English game next season.

They claim that a series of improvements will be made after the new technology has come severely under-fire for regularly causing delays and controversy during the Women's World Cup in France.

england-v-cameroon-round-of-16-2019-fifa-women-s-world-cup-france-5d1217cb07e3b0c311000001.jpg

The Telegraph understands that Professional Game Match Officials Limited (PGMOL) has a series of measures in place to avoid such issues when VAR is more widely introduced in August.

The first of those is to encourage referees to more strongly consider the flow of the match meaning VAR will not interfere as regularly, and will occur more swiftly when it is used.

Not only will this be an attempt to maintain the fast pace of Premier League football, but also to limit the television scheduling havoc that broadcasters like the BBC have suffered during this particular Women's World Cup.

There will be no pitchside review for fouls. Instead, the referee will be informed immediately that a red card needs to be shown if the challenge was missed on first instance.

england-v-cameroon-round-of-16-2019-fifa-women-s-world-cup-france-5d1217ef025540a018000001.jpg

It will no longer be used for occasions like the awful challenge on Steph Houghton by Cameroon's Alexandra Takounda during the round of 16 tie, a decision which wasted time and created further outrage when the guilty party was only shown a yellow card.

The pitchside review area will still be available, but referees will be encouraged to use it more sparingly next season.

On average, VAR has caused delays of over seven minutes per game in the World Cup, while the England vs. Cameroon endured an astonishing 18 minutes being added on.

The delays and behaviour from the Cameroon players prompted England manager Phil Neville to criticise the impact VAR had stating: "It was not football."

FIFA have also been criticised for using this major tournament as a "guinea pig" for testing new rules on penalties.

Telegraph Sport have previously reported how decisions over goalkeepers' positions during penalties will be left to the referees' discretion.

This comes after a new rule now allows goalkeepers to only have one foot on the line rather than two when the ball is kicked.

This has been a further source of controversy during the World Cup when vital penalties against Nigeria and Scotland were made to be retaken.

fbl-wc-2019-women-match32-sco-arg-5d1218ef0255407f25000001.jpg

Scotland lost their position in the tournament when Lee Alexander conceded a penalty from a retake after VAR adjudged her to have been standing in front of her line when she made a stunning double-save from the initial attempt.

Nonetheless, chairman of FIFA's refereeing committee Pierluigi Collina defended the change after England keeper Karen Bardsley called the new rules "cruel and pedantic."

Despite this defence, FIFA have encouraged referees not to book goalkeepers for not standing on their line in order to prevent this issue escalating any further.