Gary Neville says the Premier League must persist with VAR despite a difficult weekend; "I'm not going to sit here and batter them for it; human error is something that happens in all walks of life all the time. Sometimes the obvious is the last thing we see"
Wednesday 15 February 2023 08:57, UK
The Premier League must persist with the use of VAR despite a controversial weekend of decisions said Gary Neville on the latest episode of The Gary Neville Podcast, as "the good far outweighs the bad".
On Saturday, Pervis Estupinan's opening goal for Brighton against Crystal Palace was ruled out incorrectly, with the PGMOL later issuing an apology after lines were drawn incorrectly in the VAR room at Stockley Park.
The same afternoon, Lee Mason - the VAR for the Arsenal vs Brentford fixture - 'forgot' to apply the lines which would have shown Bees midfielder Christian Norgaard in an offside position before assisting Ivan Toney's equaliser.
The PGMOL has also acknowledged a 'significant error in the VAR process' was responsible for Brentford's offside goal.
The incidents have, naturally, reignited the ongoing debate surrounding the technology, but speaking on Sunday, Neville insisted it would be a "massive mistake" to call time on its use in the Premier League as a result.
He said: "I think we can always expect more. But it is human error - things happen so quickly. We sometimes see things out here and then we see the replays and we don't spot things, so we get it. I know they are trained to do this and spot these things, but we don't spot everything ourselves and we've been around football a long time.
"What I don't like the idea of is that, because Howard Webb has come out and apologised, all of a sudden that should signal the end of VAR. Even he accepts it's bad.
"Honestly, I think it would be a massive mistake and it won't happen anyway, whether I say so or whether people in the game say so or the media say so. It would be a massive mistake to lose VAR because of this weekend.
"The amount of really bad decisions that have been overturned, the amount of offside goals that have then been corrected the other way - the good far outweighs the bad. But it has been a difficult weekend and a challenging weekend for referees.
"Let's be clear, there are a lot more good decisions being made than there are bad decisions and that's coming from someone who was very critical of referees sometimes during my career, doesn't give referees an easy time, has no sway towards VAR or against VAR. But if we want accuracy in decisions, which is what we've called for for all these years, then we should persist with it.
"Webb says he's investigating it and reviewing it. We want to look at the personnel, we want to look at what's happened this weekend, we want to put it down as just being a really bad weekend. It's not happened before this season - it's happened this weekend all at once."
Sky Sports commentator and host of The Gary Neville Podcast Martin Tyler put it to Neville that assistant referees could be better placed to make decisions on offside calls, despite the current VAR protocol stating that a referee must make the final call.
Neville agreed, and went on to suggest officials might benefit from extra resources not currently afforded to them.
He continued: "When we went down to Stockley Park originally [before VAR was implemented], one of the concerns I had was that we have incredibly talented people in our Sky Sports trucks, in the compound outside that are bringing all the angles to the fans at home who are watching the replays that we see. We have very technically-gifted, qualified people who have been doing it for a long time to get to that level.
"At Stockley Park, do they have the same resource available to those referees in every single game, where they've got three or four pairs of eyes, like a director, a producer? We have a team here on matchdays so we are supported and they see things for us sometimes.
"I know they have some support, technically, down at Stockley Park to help the referees, but they won't have the team that we have, so I can see on the odd occasion there wouldn't be the same resources.
"The introduction of technology into football was never going to be smooth. We're going to see bumps in the road, but we're seeing less bumps in the road than we were a few years ago, where even I was wilting at one point, thinking it was taking too long, three to four minutes for every VAR decision.
"That one at Arsenal was like they couldn't see the wood for the trees; they got stuck into one thing and didn't see the bigger picture. I'm not going to sit here and batter them for it because it would be something that happens in all walks of life all the time. Sometimes the obvious is the last thing we see and we don't know why after.
"But that's the reality of it and I think, at the end of the day, I'm comforted by the interview that Howard Webb gave us on Friday Night Football a couple of weeks ago, I'm comforted by the refereeing performances in general.
"They are being more open and transparent and when they come out and apologise, make a mistake and say it's human error, they've held their hands up - that's what we all wanted.
"I'm comfortable with that, I can move on with that. It's when we don't hear anything. I'm not defending referees in terms of what has happened this weekend because I'm sure there will be a couple of managers who will feel really hard done by, but it will happen."
