Premier League Officiating: A Dire Situation
David Coote sacked, VAR continue to make incorrect decisions and fans are outraged. PGMOL need to make changes.
With the emergence of video evidence showing former referee David Coote using drugs, expressing hatred towards former Liverpool FC manager Jürgen Klopp, and displaying bias towards Manchester United on his old X profile, serious questions are being raised about the quality of Premier League officiating.
One of which being the integrity of individual Premier League referees. Whilst this may be a rare case for such a respected referee to be involved in such a scandal, it cannot be ignored, PGMOL must ensure neutrality within all Premier League fixtures and further investigations must be completed to guarantee officials are unbiased.
Moreover, this controversy only adds to the backlash that PGMOL are facing, as many fans are branding VAR as “disgraceful” through social media page X. Whilst some are even calling for VAR to be scrapped entirely. This frustration is proven to be correct by the Football Fans Association survey, as they found only 26.8% of fans are in favour of VAR.
This dismissal of VAR by fans comes due to the increasing inconsistency in decision-making, leading to a lack of clarity on what is a “red-card challenge” or what qualifies as a penalty or handball. This has seen to be the case in the recent London derby where Chelsea midfielder Moises Caicedo Placed a seemingly high challenge on Pape Sarr, VAR analysed the tackled a deemed it not even worthy of a yellow. This sparked mass criticism, with even pundit Jamie Carragher Portraying it as “the most obvious red card”. Displaying a lack of consistency and therefore needing some form of development.
One club which has been on the runt of several “poor” decisions is Wolverhampton Wanderers (Wolves). In response to this they have been a key advocate for the removal of VAR, as seen through Gary O’Neil’s thoughts
"Some of the decisions went against us as well in a big game. In a big game, in big moments, some decisions I thought were fairly straightforward end up going against us. It's crazy."
In addition, wolves also hired Ex-Premier League referee Andy Madley as their official VAR explainer, which struck controversy of their own within the Premier League.
To further their fight against VAR and PGMOL Wolves voted against VAR in June 2024 at the Premier League’s annual general meeting. Declaring that VAR undermines the Premier League’s values. However, all other clubs voted to keep VAR, holding the majority and VAR remained.
So, with this decision and various arguments against VAR even by Gary Lineker stating, “VAR has been seriously flawed and inefficient at times." One must question how the FA are planning to improve officiating and help settle teams who feel they are receiving several incorrect decisions.
One way to address the issues in Premier League officiating would be to somewhat emulate Rugby’s TMO system. This system is widely regarded as effective and efficient, delivering very few incorrect decisions.
To replicate such a system in football, players would need to be booked for speaking back to the referee, thereby reinforcing the authority of the officials. Additionally, PGMOL would need to enhance the training of match officials to ensure they are well-prepared for the demands of modern football. Clarity of rules would also need to be developed to further assist an improvement of match officiating and use of VAR.
In conclusion, the current state of officiating within the Premier League is not up to the level which it must be and change needs to be made to ensure clarity, efficiency and fairness across match officiating within Premier League fixtures.