It has been confirmed that audio from referees and VAR officials will be made public as part of plans for future engagement with fans in stadiums and ones watching on TV.
The Athletic have confirmed that the Premier League and the PGMOL will make this possible for a one-off TV show which will be aired via the league’s broadcast partners before the end of the season on May 28th.
There have been plenty of VAR decisions that have caused controversy this season and supporters have been calling for audio to be heard during the decision-making process in matches almost since the system’s introduction in 2019.
The PGMOL’s chief refereeing officer Howard Webb, who was a Premier League-listed referee from 1998-2000 and then from 2003-2014, revealed in December that clarity of decisions for supporters was something they wanted to work towards improving.
“We want to engage with people, and manage expectations a bit better than I think might have been done before, and be receptive to feedback.
“As it stands at the minute, clearly there’s a feeling that the perception could be better, and the level of transparency could be better.”
Football has seemed to be playing catch-up in terms of audio being played during video official referrals, with cricket and hockey two sports that have had such a system in place since 2008 and 2009 respectively, but hopefully now the sport can enter a new era of giving supporters an idea of just and why certain decisions are being made.
The reason they are always behind is because the respect level towards officials is horrendous in football, and they are scared.
Bottom line, is all audio should be heard between officials, managers and players. This way the clubs will have to improve because it’ll be heard all over the world.
The officials shouldn’t be saying anything that can’t be heard, and it would actually make their lives easier.