FA chief admits referees are split over broadcasting VAR chats live to fans
FA chief executive Mark Bullingham says he wants fans to be able to hear the conversations between match officials and the VARs while they are happening, but the proposal has received pushback from referees.
Bullingham, who is also a director at IFAB, the body which determines the laws of the game, said the organisation has considered making the audio available to fans live to increase "transparency". However, he revealed there is a "split" on the idea between officials and "marketing-and-commercial people".
"That is something we have talked about in multiple IFABs," Bullingham revealed. "Generally there is a split in the room over that, and quite often it is between the marketing-and-commercial people and the referees.
"Our point of view from the marketing and commercial perspective would normally be that transparency is a really good thing, and we want to have fans to have the maximum experience. I think we have taken a step in that direction with announcing the decision by the referee and I think that is a step forward - the fans in the stadium should never know less than the fans watching on TV.
"My personal point of view is I do think that will continue to be a question over time because the more transparency shows how difficult the referee's job is and it has worked in other sports."
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Bullingham was speaking after a major communication error resulted in Liverpool having a goal wrongly disallowed in their 2-1 defeat to Tottenham last month, with VAR Darren England mistakenly believing the goal had originally been given by on-field referee Simon Hooper.
"There is an understandable nervousness from others that the referee's job is hard enough as it is," Bullingham continued. "In a tournament you have referees with multiple languages so it is not as straightforward as some might suggest.
"So I think we are taking a step in the right direction with announcing the decision and explaining why it has been reached. Let's see if that leads to further progression."
PGMOL boss Howard Webb has previously said he also wants the audio to be broadcast live to fans."We are not allowed to do it live at the moment, in-game, the international board at FIFA don't allow that," he told talkSPORT in May.
PGMOL boss Howard Webb (Premier League)"Maybe that will change. I am part of a working group looking to see if we can get the opportunity to play audio out live.
"But at the moment, we can't. So we are doing the next best thing, playing it out afterwards. We think it is the right direction." When asked why they are not allowed to broadcast the audio, Webb explained: "I think they feel that the program is still fairly new, they think it is still in its infancy.
"Officials are still developing the way to communicate with each other. They are always aware of the need to think about how skilled officials are at communicating with something that is pretty new and ensuring that they maintain their levels of credibility, I think that is understandable."
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