The biggest talking point last season in the Premier League as a whole was the implementation of VAR, and echoes to change its implementation grew louder as the months progressed. The Premier League has responded to the growing criticism.
The league, and the referees, came under immense criticism over their use of the technology. The league will hope to resolve those issues this season and ensure a more free-flowing game with a higher threshold.
The biggest change so far is in the implementation of the offside rule. Over the last two seasons, VAR decided offside calls using freeze-frames, drawn lines, and the narrowest of margins. This year, the league has decided to continue with the same approach but subsequently give the attacking player the benefit of the doubt. Furthermore, linesmen and lineswomen are now encouraged to raise their flags for clear offsides.
“On marginal offside, we’ve now effectively re-introduced the benefit of the doubt to the attacking player,”
“Where we have a really close offside decision, we carry on following the same process that we did last season with the one-pixel lines; we’ll then put on the thicker broadcast lines, and where they overlap those situations will now be deemed as onside.”
Mike Riley, Premier League referees’ chief, said.
The Premier League has also changed its perception over awarding penalties through VAR, by increasing the threshold of what’s allowed. That means that soft penalty decisions upon review might not go the attackers’ way, as was the case over the last two seasons.
“The principles we established are: the referee should look for contact and establish clear contact, then ask if that contact has a consequence, and then has the player used that contact to try and win a foul or win a penalty,”
Riley added.
The Premier League gets underway for the 2021/22 season on August 13, with a match between Arsenal and Brentford.
