Referees and VAR in the Premier League this season have been making horrible decisions which have had a huge impact on the match and might even have an influence on the ending to the season, whether that be the title race, or relegation battles.
Whenever a mistake is made, they resort to releasing the audio of said match, and then apologising. The impression I get from this, is that they expect it to fix everything that went wrong. A simple apology for a huge mistake isn’t going to fix the amount of points a team has gotten from the game, and where they are placed in the league table.
There are some things that are on the line of being a proper mistake, and just debatable but some of the mistakes that have been made are a lot worse than others. For example, the Tottenham and Liverpool game in September of 2023 had a big moment of drama where human error was the excuse for a very poor decision. After Luis Diaz scored, he was ruled offside and VAR Darren England checked it without drawing any lines, and the decision stood. Liverpool lost out on all three points and that could end up being catastrophic towards the business end of the season.
Another terrible decision occurred in August of 2023 between Manchester United and Wolves. United goalkeeper Andre Onana clattered into Sasa Kalajdzic in an attempt to punch a cross away. It was a clear foul, but referee Simon Hooper did not award a penalty and VAR Michael Salisbury stuck with the on-field decision. The Wolves player was literally punched in the head, and you couldn’t ask for more of a foul, yet the correct decision wasn’t reached. PGMOL Howard Webb apologised to Wolves after the match, again expecting that to fix everything.
The officiating doesn’t seem to be getting again better, with the standard seemingly dropping every game. Whenever an officiating team put in a good performance, fans are surprised and happy about it, which clearly shows how bad it has gotten.
So, will the standard get better, or will they keep ruining these vital matches?