PREMIER LEAGUE club chiefs hope thicker VAR lines will solve the offside controversy.
Fans and players have united in frustration at a series of hair’s breadth calls made by the technology.
Liverpool striker Roberto Firmino, at Villa Park, was one of several big-name victims of wafer-thin VAR offside verdict this term,
Norwich star Teemu Pukki is one of many players left stunned at VAR ruling out an efforts for offside, on this occasion at home to SpursCredit: PA:Press Association
Club chiefs are set to take action as 25 strikes so far have been scrubbed out on VARCredit: Rex Features
So far this season, 25 “goals” have been ruled out for VAR offside calls, with six more awarded after the flag was raised.
Many of those were fractional decisions, with players ruled offside by millimetres after Prem gadget wizards at their Stockley Park hub used 3D technology to make the call.
But now the 20 Prem clubs have urged refs’ chief Mike Riley and his team to go away and see if making the defending line “thicker” can be the solution.
Under the concept, the 3D pixels would still be used to determine the positions of the attacking and defending players.
But rather than the lines being drawn based on those positions, the defending “blue line” would be widened to cover 10cm of real space.
That would give leeway and benefit attacking players, with players ruled onside if they attacking line falls within the larger defending line.
IT’S THE PITS
In a report to the clubs in London on Thursday, Riley is understood to have said that a 10cm defensive band would have resulted in up to nine of this season’s disallowed goals having been awarded.
Those are believed to have included strikes by Norwich’s Teemu Pukki against Spurs and Liverpool’s Roberto Firmino at Aston Villa.
Prem chiefs have been criticised for so-called “arm-pit offsides” this season.
Riley also gave suggestions for the amount of disallowed goals that would have been awarded had the “tolerance band” been 15cm and 20cm.
The clubs want Riley to report back in April with an update on whether the scheme is viable.
Prem bosses, though, would have to get approval from the Law-making International FA Board to bring the system in next season, although other leagues have been given some dispensation to implement their own models.
One insider said: “The clubs want Mike Riley and the League to see if this will work.
“There was agreement in the room that VAR has to be part of the game but that we have to make it work better.
“This is a possible solution but one that everyone agrees would mean more goals.
“But even if we are ready to go with it for next season it would still have to be ratified by Ifab.”
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Source: Soccer - thesun.co.uk
