Recent poll of fans of top flight English clubs.
Some of the outcomes
- 75% of those polled want VAR binned
- 85% of match-going fans “strongly disagreed” that “VAR decisions are generally resolved in a reasonable amount of time”
- 85% of match-going fans “strongly disagreed” with the notion that “VAR makes watching football more enjoyable”
- Only 18% agreed that “VAR has improved the overall accuracy of refereeing decisions”.
- 79% “strongly disagreed” with the suggestion “that the match-going experience is better with VAR”.
At a recent SMISA meeting & the continued message from the SPFL & SFA is, we want to work to make VAR better. To make it less impactful on match experiences & faster at more accurate decision making.
These results are based on a technological investment in the EPL we are nowhere near. If this is the view of fans in the EPL with the gold standard tech, what chance have we got for meaningful improvements in the short to medium term?
The issues of officials competence & bias are also really clear on social media. That for me is a red flag for changing our officials or upskilling (not that it is on the cards anyway)
For me it’s time for a fan led vote on retaining or binning VAR. If people want to keep it or not, surely there’s no debate that the fairest way is to let the democratic views of your biggest stakeholders (the fans) decide?