I am, as crazy as it sounds, in favour of VAR, Video assistant referee It's hard for me to say if I'm for or against video referee

I am in favour of VAR and it's really for nothing more sophisticated than because the evidence suggests so far it is reducing the number of wrong decisions in football I am not philosophically opposed to the idea of video assistant referees Football is such a game of moments that come around infrequently and they being so destabilised by the influence of VAR People tend to forget that it started a bit over a year ago, and there are still things that need to be fixed It's been very unpopular with fans on the terraces The official numbers released by the Italian Referees' Association are that it has reduced the number of referee mistakes from roughly 6% of decisions, to just under 1% of decisions Sometimes it's difficult to understand why the main referee goes to see the images in the screen and why other times, he just accepts the video referee indication What we don't necessarily notice is how it's changing the way players behave

The fact they know they're going to be picked up, they know they're gonna get caught for this stuff, players are trying it on less, I think, and that's something that's really valuable I think the system in its current format isn't really fit for purpose To me the biggest area that's problematic with VAR is still that of communicating with the fans I am not against using video technology for clear cut black and white issues The most important thing is to improve its application so video referee can be more efficient and also less invasive

I would be pleased if we used the video system referee after the match to punish cheating like diving or rough fouls another way I think what would be more important is if the game would focus on a respect agenda There's been too many things that have been thrown on referees' plates to be able to learn about how to use VAR I think that has to be a better way than what football is doing at the moment of letting fans know exactly what is being reviewed, and letting them know perhaps I would be in favour of even letting them see what's being reviewed I know that contentious but to me that's the biggest area still

You've got to make it not a horrible experience for fans inside the stadium who are watching the game

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