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At the end of every season, the Premier League's stakeholdersâincluding coaches, captains, and fansâare asked for their opinions on refereeing standards.
Last summer, 80% supported the high threshold for VAR intervention.
Clubs may feel wronged by decisions, such as Manchester United at Bournemouth, but often overlook occasions when they have benefited from this high threshold.
Examples include the push by Leny Yoro before United scored at Fulham, the penalty awarded for Jaydee Canvot's hold on Cunha (which also resulted in a VAR red card), and Diogo Dalot's potential red-card challenge on Jeremy Doku.
Clubs tend to have selective memories when decisions go against them.
Although there have been fewer VAR interventions this season, accuracy has remained steady at 94%.
The PGMOL would likely argue this indicates more decisions are being made on the field rather than relying on VAR.
The independent Key Match Incidents Panel reports that on-field accuracy has remained stable at 86% since the 2023-24 season.
Taking this at face value, on-field refereeing standards have neither improved nor declined.
English football's biggest issue is its uncertainty about what it wants.
There is resistance to VAR involvement in games.
The Premier League has the lowest VAR intervention rate in Europe, yet clubs demand more VAR involvement when decisions do not favor them.
Clubs are consistently unhappy when decisions go against them but remain notably silent when they benefit from such decisions.
