Gary Neville Podcast: Premier League must persist with VAR; the good far outweighs the bad | Football News

The Premier League should keep using VAR despite the weekend’s controversial decision says Gary Neville on the latest episode of The Gary Neville Podcastas “good outweighs evil”.

On Saturday, Pervis Estupinan’s opening goal for Brighton against Crystal Palace was incorrect, with PGMOL later apologizing after the lines were incorrectly drawn in the VAR room at Stockley Park.

That same evening, Lee Mason – VAR for Arsenal vs Brentford – ‘forgot’ to apply a line that would have shown Bees midfielder Christian Norgaard in an offside position before assisting Ivan Toney’s equaliser.

PGMOL have also admitted a ‘significant error in the VAR process’ was responsible for Brentford’s offside goal.

The incident has, of course, sparked ongoing debate about the technology, but on Sunday, Neville insisted it would be a “big mistake” to call time on its use in the Premier League.

He said: “I think we could have hoped for more. But it’s human error – it happens so quickly. Sometimes we see things here and there and then we see the replays and we don’t notice anything, so I understand. we’re being trained to do this and this point, but we do not point all ourselves and we have been around football for a long time.

“What I don’t want is, because Howard Webb has come out and apologised, to suddenly have to signal the end of VAR. Even he accepted it badly.

“Honestly, I think it would be a big mistake and it won’t happen, whether I say it or people at the game say it or the media say it. It would be a big mistake to lose VAR because of this weekend.

“The number of very bad decisions that have been overturned, the number of offside goals that have been corrected in other ways – the good far outweighed the bad. But it was a tough weekend and a challenging weekend for referees.

“Let’s be clear, there are more good decisions than bad decisions and this is coming from someone who has been very critical of referees throughout my career, not giving the referees easy, having no influence on VAR or against VAR But if we want accuracy in decisions, which we have been asking for all these years, so we have to keep going.

“Webb said he’s investigating and reviewing. We want to look at personnel, we want to see what happened this weekend, we want to put it down as a very bad weekend. It didn’t happen before this season – it happened this weekend all at once.”

‘There are bumps in the road with technology; officials could do with extra resources’

Sky Sports commentator and host from At The Gary Neville Podcast Martin Tyler told Neville that the assistant referee could be better at making decisions about offside calls, even though current VAR protocol dictates that the referee should make the final call.

Neville agreed, and went on to suggest that officials could benefit from the extra resources not currently being provided.

He continued: “When we went down to Stockley Park originally [before VAR was implemented]one of my concerns is that we have incredibly talented people in us Sky Sports truck, in the outside compound that brings all the angles to the fans in front of those who watch the replays that we read. We have technically qualified and qualified people who have been working for a long time to reach this level.

“At Stockley Park, do they have the same resources available to referees in every game, where they have three or four eyes, like directors, producers? and they see things for us sometimes.

“I know they have the support, technically, down at Stockley Park to help the referees, but they won’t have the team that we have, so I can see that we don’t have the same resources.

“The introduction of technology into football will not be smooth. We will see bumps in the road, but we see less bumps in the road than a few years ago, where I was even wilting at one point, thinking it took too long, three to four minutes for each VAR decision.

“Those at Arsenal seem to be unable to see the wood for the trees; they are stuck in one thing and don’t see the bigger picture. I will not sit here and beat them because it will be something that happens in all walks of life all the time. Sometimes it is obvious that was the last we saw and we didn’t know what happened after.

“But that’s the reality and I think, at the end of the day, I’m satisfied with the interview that Howard Webb gave on Friday Night Football a few weeks ago, I’m satisfied with the performance of the referee in general. .

“He’s more open and transparent and when he comes out and apologizes, makes a mistake and says it’s a human error, he puts his hands up – that’s what he wants.

“I’m comfortable with that, I can continue with that. That’s when we didn’t hear anything. I’m not defending the referee in terms of what happened this weekend because I’m sure there will be some managers. that will feel difficult to do, but it will happen.”