By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
English Premier League teams have voted in favour of keeping video assistant referees (VARs) despite a considerable amount of criticism this past season about the technology-aided officiating system.
The vote took place at the Premier League’s annual general meeting in Harrogate on Thursday.
Wolverhampton Wanderers called the vote to scrap the system, had backed the abolition of VAR.
The West Midlands team have been on the receiving end of a number of questionable decisions involving VAR over the last season.
But in light of the vote, the Premier League, its clubs and referees’ body Professional Game Match Officials Limited (PGMOL) acknowledged that improvements were needed for the benefit of the game and supporters.
The Premier League is hoping a number of changes for next season, 2024/25, will improve the use of VAR.
“While VAR produces more accurate decision making, it was agreed that improvements should be made for the benefit of the game and supporters,” the league said in a statement.
This includes the introduction of semi-automated offside technology along with in-stadium announcements – where an on-field decision is changed following the intervention of VAR.
In another vote taken at the AGM in Harrogate, clubs agreed to trial two financial measures. Squad cost rules (SCR) will limit a club to spending no more than 85% of its revenue on player-related costs (including agent fees).
Top to bottom anchoring rules (TBA) also limit spending on player costs, with each club limited to a multiple of the TV revenue generated by the division’s bottom club. This measure has been pitched as a means of maintaining competitive balance within the division, before what is expected to be a growing gap in earnings between those sides in European competition and those who are not.