VAR has left Premier League referees the worst in a long time – Shearer

Newcastle United legend Alan Shearer has delivered one of the most withering assessments of Premier League officiating in recent memory, declaring that referees have become “petrified to make decisions” because of their overreliance on VAR and that standards have now fallen to their lowest point in years.

Shearer’s most pointed criticism came in the wake of two separate officiating controversies that inflamed public debate. The former England and Newcastle striker lambasted the decision-making on display during Newcastle’s 3-1 FA Cup win over Aston Villa, a match played without VAR, pointing in particular to the failure to award a penalty after Lucas Digne clearly handled the ball inside the box, with the Frenchman also fortunate not to be dismissed for a dangerous high challenge on Jacob Murphy. Villa’s opener from Tammy Abraham should also have been ruled offside.

For Shearer, the chaos in the Villa match was not the product of referee incompetence, it was proof of the corrosive effect VAR has had on the ability of officials to make autonomous calls. “If you ever needed any evidence of the damage VAR has done to the referees, today is a great example of that because these guys looked petrified to make decisions because they didn’t have a comfort blanket. For me they are actually getting worse. I really don’t think that is a difficult decision at all. In fact, it is easy, and at this standard that has to be given. There is no excuse for the assistant not to tell his referee. He has got that totally wrong,” Shearer said on BBC One.

The frustration continued into the weekend. Shearer told BBC Radio 5 Live that refereeing standards are now the worst seen for a long time and are only getting worse. “They are too reliant on it and it’s affecting the standard of refereeing now, and it’s not a good look,” he said.

His remarks were specifically prompted by fresh controversy surrounding a 2-2 Premier League draw. VAR came under new scrutiny after Manchester United’s 2-2 draw with Bournemouth, in which referee Stuart Attwell declined to award a penalty after a challenge on Amad Diallo, only to then give Bournemouth a spot-kick for a similar foul by Harry Maguire on Evanilson, before sending Maguire off — a sequence Shearer described as wholly inconsistent and unacceptable.

Manchester United manager Michael Carrick revealed his frustrations after the match and the club subsequently confirmed plans to lodge a formal complaint with the Professional Game Match Officials Limited over the decisions.

Shearer was not alone in his condemnation. Former Liverpool full-back Stephen Warnock described VAR as the worst thing introduced to the game. “I think it has ruined it. It’s ruined the enjoyment in stadiums. I think it’s ruined it for referees to officiate. VAR isn’t perfect, it isn’t great, it makes mistakes and it’s still subjective, which is a huge problem,” he said on Radio 5 Live. Former England captain Wayne Rooney was equally incensed, calling the failure to award Newcastle a penalty against Digne “one of the worst decisions I have ever seen in football.”

VAR has been in operation in the Premier League since the 2019-20 season. After another year of controversy, its use is once again under intense scrutiny, with referee chiefs from the Premier League, La Liga, Serie A, the Bundesliga and Ligue 1 set to hold a summit to discuss how to reset the technology to its originally intended purpose: intervening only for the clearest of errors rather than for microscopic marginal calls.

At the end of last season, 80 per cent of Premier League stakeholders, including coaches, captains, and fans, backed the high threshold for VAR intervention. But with controversies continuing to pile up week after week, the appetite for a fundamental rethink of how the technology is applied appears to be growing.