- Everton has been undone multiple times by bad refereeing this season.
- Panel confirmed Everton should have been given pen against Man City
- Danny Mills proposes new changes to VAR rules for next season.
Everton fans do not need reminding about VAR this season.
The Key Match Incidents panel recently agreed the Blues should have had penalties in their games against West Ham United and Manchester City. At the London Stadium, Mateus Fernandes handled the ball inside the box. No penalty was given. Howard Webb later admitted it was wrong.
At home against Manchester City, Bernardo Silva grappled Merlin Rohl to the groun. Referee Michael Oliver waved play on. VAR did nothing. The panel later confirmed said it was a clear penalty. Similar incident happened at Arsenal when a penalty against Saliba was not given.
Those decisions alone cost Everton massive points. In a season where European qualification was the goal, those decisions mattered and eventually never came in Everton’s favour. And they were not the only ones to voice against it. Now, former England defender Danny Mills has put in his two words as well
‘VAR is terrible, I’ve said it from day one’
Mills believes referees are relying too much on the technology as a back‑up. He said, “VAR is terrible, I’ve said it from day one. Goal-line technology, I get it. Now we’ve finally got the semi-automated offside as well, at least it’s a bit clearer and quicker than it was previously.
“There’s still always going to be the odd subjective decision about when players are in the goalkeeper’s line of sight or interfering with play. That’s always going to happen, you’re never going to eradicate that from live sport with lots of moving parts. That’s just how it is.”
His main issue is with referee mentality. “I think referees rely too much on VAR. It’s too much of a safety net and they stop making big decisions. They stop making sharp, correct decisions because they know: ‘If I don’t make it, someone else will make it looking at the replays’. I think that degrades the quality of refereeing over the course of time.”
Mills proposes time limit and audio transparency
Mills has even a plan to fix the VAR mess. “I would say you’ve got 30 seconds, three replays. If you cannot decide within three replays, if it is a blatant error, clear and obvious, then it’s no longer clear and obvious. So you say there’s two slow motion replays, one in real time, 30 seconds, go.”
He also wants audio made available. “The VAR should not introduce bias by suggesting the referee ‘got this wrong’ or that ‘there’s a penalty’. The instruction should simply be to ‘go and look at the screen’, leaving the final decision entirely to the on-field referee.”
“If a referee is told they missed something by a VAR who has seen multiple replays, the referee is already psychologically predisposed to change their original decision upon approaching the screen.
“To counter this, I propose limiting the review to two slow-motion replays and one full-speed replay, with a maximum time limit of 30 seconds. If the error is not clear and obvious within that time, the decision on the field should stand.”
By all means, it is a sensible suggestion. For Everton, who have seen multiple big calls go against them, anything that brings consistency and clarity would be welcome. Mills is right about one thing, though, that referees have stopped making big decisions. That needs to change.
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