Speaking ahead of the Chelsea match on New Year’s Day, Albion’s head coach admitted he remains broadly supportive of VAR, but also highlighted the need to cut officials a bit of slack.
He explained, “I don’t think my position has changed on it. We’re talking about offsides because that’s the most recent thing, before that, it was about clear and obvious [mistakes].
“If you go back two years before VAR, we were probably talking about an official’s decision and calling for technology.
“It’s the culture of football and a mentality [that needs to change]. I want to support it because it’s here, but we’re looking at the problem in the wrong way.
“We brought it in because we want correct decisions and everything to be consistent and right. But football is a game of mistakes played by humans, so they’ll get them wrong.
“In the culture of wanting to blame somebody – [we should accept] they’ll still get things wrong.”
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Over the festive period, a number of marginal offsides were correctly ruled out by VAR across the Premier League, including one in Albion’s favour at Spurs and one against Dan Burn in Saturday’s match with Bournemouth.
That triggered a national debate around VAR. Neither of the decisions affected the outcome in either Albion match, but Potter, while broadly supportive of VAR, gave his view on the new offside rules.
He added, “If you bring in an objective measure for offside, then even if it’s a by a fine margin, it’s offside.
“Everyone knows in football that it’s a goal really, including the one that Harry Kane scores against us for Tottenham.
“In football terms for the fans, it’s a goal. Now because of VAR, it’s offside and it changes a lot. I know he’s offside, but in my head as a football person, it’s a goal.
“I accept the fact that some calls might be too tight for the referee and the linesman to spot, but I’m alright with that, and I think the people in the stadium would be too.
“The challenge now is saying ‘that’s not a goal’ and the people in the ground think ‘hang on a minute’ and it’s an eighth of a millimetre off – is that right, is that good for the game and the paying customer?”
While Potter might support a tweak to offside rules, his broad opinion is that everyone within the game must accept subjective decisions — with or without VAR — and the search for refereeing perfection is impossible.
He added, “The culture has to change, because while it’s a blame culture for results then we’ll always look for something to change, to improve and we don’t accept that someone can make a mistake and that you can lose, because that’s life.
“The next stage, and I was half joking, is to get rid of people and use robots because that’s the only way we can make sure everything’s right and the game will be brilliant,” added Potter, with tongue firmly in cheek.
“Football at times is really unfair but that’s what’s good about it, it’s like life. You get on the wrong end of the decision and you have to get on with it. If we take that away, then we’re changing the game.”
Now read Albion deputy chairman and chief executive Paul Barber’s view on VAR.