The Premier League has joined the Uefa Champions League and has voted to introduce Video Assistant Referees from next season.
The technology has been utilised over the past two campaigns in both Serie A and the Bundesliga, it was also used with relative success at last summer’s Russian World Cup.
The Premier League issued the following update: “Non-live testing programme will remain in place for the rest of this season, with a continued emphasis on those Saturday afternoons which have several matches being played concurrently and developing a clear protocol for communicating VAR decisions to fans.”
Former Premier League referee Mark Halsey, commented on BBC Radio 5 live’s Afternoon Edition: “I think it is a good thing. I know a lot of people are against it but we’ve got to embrace it now and move forward.
“We’ve seen this season a number of incidences that have been called wrong, especially this weekend when there were a number of goals ruled out when they shouldn’t have been.
“I think as long as we get the training and education right, and we get the right personnel, that’s the most important thing for me.
“The referees will still want to go out and get the key match decisions right, it’s very important that referees are not hiding behind the VAR – they’ve still going to be making these big calls correctly.”
