EPL To Make Adjustments To VAR

The English Premier League will cut down on soft penalties from the beginning of the 2021/2022 season.

This is according to Premier League referees’ chief, Mike Riley who has held discussions with clubs, players, managers and the Football Supporters’ Association over the situation.

The Video Assistant Referee, VAR, will also experience some changes which could prevent some 20 gaols from being disallowed.

Riley said: “Fundamentally we want the approach to be one that best allows the players to go out and express themselves, allows the Premier League games to flow and means the refereeing team, both as referee and as VAR, don’t intervene for trivial offences.

“Let’s create a free-flowing game, where the threshold is slightly higher than it was last season.”

At least 32 goals were ruled out for offside via VAR decisions last season. Riley admits 20 of the overall total would have stood using the new process for 2021/2022, which will copy that seen at Euro 2020.

“On marginal offside, we’ve now effectively re-introduced the benefit of the doubt to the attacking player,” Riley said.