Premier League statement on VAR

The subject of VAR was discussed at length, with the idea to speed up its usage and provide better communication to fans inside the stadium.

The Professional Games Match Officials Board (PGMOL) and the Premier League both committed to this, and PGMOL managing director, Mike Riley, admitted that improvement is required.

Speed and consistency of decision making were the key areas chosen for improvement, and Riley stressed that this will get better naturally as the officials become more accustomed to using the technology. The clear and obvious test was reaffirmed for subjective decisions to narrow the area of debate.

More information will be made available to fans both inside the ground, and those watching around the world. This will be based around explaining in more detail what is being checked.

The Premier League will continue to show the definitive clip or image for all overturned decisions in stadia, remaining the only major European League to do so.

The policy of using the Referee Review Area was discussed, and it was agreed that this would be reserved for unseen incidents, or when information from the VAR is outside the expectation range of the referee.

The core principles of VAR were reiterated. These are minimum interference for maximum benefit, maintaining the pace and tempo of Premier League football and correcting clear and obvious on-field errors.

Clubs strongly represented the views of their supporters and agreed VAR should be under constant review. Research will now take place with fans and other relevant stakeholders, to understand their views on how the application of VAR could be best improved.