PL Chief Tony Scholes praises Premier League referees saying league refereeing standards ‘a model’ for the world.
PL Chief Tony Scholes praises VAR and hails ‘significant progress’.
The Premier League has defended its referees and VAR system, claiming that English officials are “a model they would like to follow” and that the rest of the world “looks up to” them.
In the English top division, refereeing errors and VAR delays have decreased, according to a study released on Tuesday by Tony Scholes, the league’s chief football officer. His comments were made a little more than a week after referee Michael Oliver was subject to death threats for what appeared to be a match-related blunder.
Scholes said of refereeing standards: “The feedback that I’m getting from clubs is that the vast majority recognised significant progress in this area. But that is also the case with other leagues around the world, where they all look up to the match officials in this country and indeed the VAR process and VAR officials in this country as a model that they would like to follow. Sometimes it doesn’t feel that way here in England, but that’s the message that I get from people around the world.”
Scholes acknowledged that the use of VAR had been “nowhere near good enough” a year ago, but this year he came back with a more upbeat message. According to Scholes, the number of referee errors in significant match situations this season, up to and including game week 23, was 64, compared to 80 during the same period last year. 66 of the 70 VAR interventions that took place throughout that period successfully overturned a decision.
“That’s less than one intervention in three games. It shows the interference of the VAR is not at the level many of us perceive it is. “We should also recognise that the number of VAR errors has gone down substantially from 20 to 13 too.
“I stress to clubs all the time that nobody here underestimates the significance and the impact of one single error. We know it can cost clubs points, can cost them results, can cost managers [their] positions potentially.
“It’s absolutely right that we continue to push these officials to be as good as they can be. But it’s also right that we acknowledge the progress that has been made. We do not get the best performance out of people if we are constantly criticising, constantly beating [people] up over errors made. It’s right we should acknowledge the progress.”