VAR has divided the opinions of almost everyone in football since it was introduced.
Every week there is a new debate around the technology, whether it is working and whether it has improved the game.
Now the debate will continue into the summer break - after Wolves tabled a proposal to scrap VAR.
It comes after the club were on the wrong end of a number of VAR decisions across the course of the campaign.
The proposal will be discussed at the Premier League AGM on June 6, and ahead of that we asked our reporters what they think of VAR, and whether they believe it should be scrapped.
Every week there is a new debate around the technology, whether it is working and whether it has improved the game.
Now the debate will continue into the summer break - after Wolves tabled a proposal to scrap VAR.
It comes after the club were on the wrong end of a number of VAR decisions across the course of the campaign.
The proposal will be discussed at the Premier League AGM on June 6, and ahead of that we asked our reporters what they think of VAR, and whether they believe it should be scrapped.
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00:00 [Music]
00:07 As I've said in my written piece, for me the biggest question is whether VAR improves the gain that we've currently seen in the last five years since it's been in the Premier League.
00:16 And as Wolves reporter, you can imagine Wolves have been very adversely affected over multiple seasons, let alone just this season with VAR.
00:25 But that's not really where my gripe with VAR comes from. Yes, the decisions are upsetting. Yes, the accuracy is upsetting.
00:33 But even if the stats show a slight increase on accuracy, in my opinion, the atmosphere that is sucked out of the game is not worth the hassle of VAR, the time taken to come to decisions.
00:46 A lot of them very subjective decisions that, you know, human error referees would make regardless of VAR. VAR was not brought in to be analysed in the smallest of moments.
00:55 It was brought in, I think, to take the big mistakes away. And those big mistakes are being slowly increased across the Premier League.
01:05 Fans hate it. The atmosphere in stadiums is terrible for that.
01:10 And the way that it's not in keeping with the spirit of the game and sucking the life out of the game, I would scrap VAR tomorrow.
01:17 Also, semi-automated offside, we're yet to see how that works in the Premier League. I would imagine that works really well.
01:22 So that I can understand. Obviously, I can judge it once we see it, but I would expect it to work quite well.
01:27 Goal line technology, apart from one or two small blips, has been pretty much seamless since it's come in.
01:32 It's not necessarily the technology, those two things I enjoy. It's the way VAR is used.
01:37 They use it in a totally different way. I can understand keeping it. At the moment, with how it's used and how often it intervenes,
01:43 it is a stain, really, on the Premier League, which is the best league in the world.
01:47 One of the joys of covering Walsall in League 2 this season is the fact that VAR is something which we haven't had to contend with.
01:56 Although contentious decisions have been made and they have been debated, once the dust has settled, it can simply be put down to human error.
02:04 Whereas when you have a number of officials reviewing an incident from various angles and still not reaching what many believe to be the correct precision,
02:15 then it's clearly frustrating and the time in which it takes to do so.
02:18 Sometimes you're looking at four or five minutes and sometimes even longer.
02:23 It can slow the momentum down in games and I believe it can sometimes make it less watchable as a spectacle.
02:30 There's clearly pros to it. We only saw the other day in the League 2 player final when Corey O'Day came out and won the ball.
02:36 The referee originally pointed to the spot. He's gone to the pitchside monitor and reversed his decision.
02:41 So that was a justifiable use of the technology. But far too often we've seen the wrong decision made.
02:48 And it's clearly something which has divided supporters.
02:52 Have the laws of the game with constant changes season by season made it more difficult for VAR to be implemented? Possibly so.
03:01 There's clearly a grey area around clear and obvious. But for myself, I would be an advocate against it.
03:10 If it was to stay, one thing that needs to improve is the communication within the stadium.
03:14 A notification on the stadium board leaves a lot of suspense for supporters.
03:19 I only saw in the A-League the other day that the referee was mic'd up.
03:23 That then gave him the ability to communicate his decision.
03:27 That doesn't mean that supporters will be happy with the final decision, but at least it notifies them as to why he's reached that decision and what the final decision is.
03:36 But for myself, I would definitely be massively for removing it from the game altogether.
03:43 Fortunately, covering West Brom, we don't really have to deal with VAR.
03:49 But obviously we see it throughout other clubs and obviously being in support of the Premier League and so on and so forth.
03:54 For me, it was something that was never really going to work.
03:59 Like I've explained in my piece, it worked in tennis, it worked in cricket, it worked in rugby.
04:05 It will do because the laws of the game are black and white.
04:10 I hear a lot in the piece that you're reading and a lot in the media that a lot of decisions are subjective.
04:17 When the ball's in and out, it's black and white.
04:19 When the ball's over the line, it's black and white.
04:21 I've heard a couple of tech anomalies in the last few years on that.
04:25 But apart from that, the rest of it is subjective.
04:30 Whether a penalty's in the box or not, it hinges on whether it's a penalty or not.
04:34 One referee might say it's a penalty, the other referee might say it's not.
04:37 It's all subjective and I think for me, I would rather go back to letting the on-field referee decide whether or not it's a penalty.
04:45 If it's wrong, it's wrong. People make mistakes.
04:50 But the fact that mistakes are being made from the person on the field and the person on the touchline maybe,
04:56 and then the person in the stopping park, and then another person in the stopping park,
05:00 and then by the 40 yard or 50 yard or however many they are, it's just not right.
05:05 It is ruining the game a little bit. It's telling the game a little bit.
05:09 I think people say, "Oh, it's worked in World Cups and Euros." Fair enough, but it hasn't worked in the Premier League.
05:15 I think, do you know what I mean?
05:17 The definition of Salah doing the same thing over and over expecting the same result, I think there's a little bit of that in there.
05:24 So for me, I wouldn't scrap it altogether, but I would simplify it and I would have it covering a couple of things rather than everything.
05:32 But I think we need to look at it more.
05:36 The entertainment and back to what you said about the VAR debate is one that has murmured on throughout the whole of the entire season,
05:43 obviously with Wolves bringing it to a head last week.
05:46 It's an interesting topic for someone who's spent the majority of the season watching football in League One.
05:54 It's perhaps slightly different for me because I haven't experienced the controversies of VAR and the frustrations quite as much.
06:03 But what you do still get at that level of football is you do still get the mistakes from officials, which can be frustrating for everybody in the stadium.
06:13 I think the main problem is that football, from where I see it anyway, is that football is subjective.
06:19 And what one person believes to be a foul, another person won't believe to be a foul.
06:24 What one person believes to be humble, another person won't think that.
06:29 And I think that is the biggest problem with VAR is that even once you can see a decision given, but it's subjective to the person who's viewing it.
06:38 And that is probably, we're trying to get 100% accuracy.
06:42 We're trying to get a perfect world, but that's really, really difficult, isn't it, in something that is opinion, basically.
06:49 VAR itself, the experience, having experienced Wolves against Bournemouth a few weeks ago and a couple of Aston Villa games earlier in the year,
06:59 the weight in the stadium and the lack of people knowing what's going on is not ideal at all.
07:05 And it does kill atmosphere. So I can see where Wolves are coming from, from that perspective.
07:09 But ultimately, I think it's a problem that will never really be fixed because one way or another, if VAR make the calls wrong or referees make the calls wrong,
07:17 somebody will always be moaning in some way.
07:20 I'm not a great fan of VAR and I would like to see it removed from the game, full stop, to be honest.
07:26 Do I think that is going to happen, though? I'm not sure I can quite see it.
07:31 And to be honest, as much as I think it is disrupting or actually even ruining the experience of football for fans,
07:42 certainly in the stadium, but even those that watch it on television, I'm not sure I can see it being voted out and abolished entirely.
07:51 I also sort of fear that that's happening will be viewed from some as sort of like a backward step for the sport.
08:00 You know, that sort of showed we're forward thinking and willing to use technology, but then scrapping it altogether may not be the best look.
08:08 I think so if we can't get rid of the whole thing, as I wrote, sport, football is about moments, memories, emotions,
08:16 and the technology has just killed that and made for a horrible spectacle, in my opinion.
08:21 But if we can't vote to abolish the whole thing, then let's just streamline it, simplify it.
08:27 Let's just make it for those black and white decisions, which work undoubtedly.
08:31 The area it fails is subjectivity, isn't it?
08:34 The subject decision we're moving from a referee helped by his two assistants, his or her two assistants.
08:42 Now we have God knows how many people at Stopley Park also making subjective decisions.
08:48 Do they all agree? How long is it taking? They're subjective.
08:52 So are they going to come out right? Well, in some cases, clearly no.
08:57 And we still have these debates about decisions.
09:00 We used to have them in the pub talking about the referee, you know, the people there.
09:03 And the technology hasn't helped that.
09:05 And as I say, the most important thing is it's killing it and ruined it as a spectacle.
09:09 So, yeah, my decision would would firmly be to get rid.
09:13 VAR, very annoying repetition because it goes on and on and on again.
09:21 And they make mistake after mistake after mistake.
09:26 Don't get me wrong. I think VAR used correctly is an absolute no brainer.
09:32 Unfortunately, in this country, we can't do that.
09:36 Semi-automated offsides, no problem at all.
09:39 Goal line technology, no problem at all.
09:42 But then let the referee ref.
09:45 Everything else is an absolute joke. It's absurd.
09:49 I'm interviewing fans after the game, and I reckon out of the 38 games this season, 19 of them, they're talking about VAR.
09:56 Now that can't be healthy for the game. It can't be healthy for the product.
10:00 And when these guys and girls are paying so much money, thousands of pounds to send families to football,
10:07 and they're growing frustrated, they're walking out early, it's a toxic atmosphere.
10:12 Come on, smell the coffee.
10:14 If these guys at Stokely Park were fit for purpose, then this would be no problem.
10:19 But they're not, unfortunately.
10:21 And regardless of the rule changes that you're going to have, these same people are still going to be adhering to those rules.
10:27 And I don't trust it whatsoever.
10:29 I'm all for VAR, but in its current situation, with the current people running the game, scrap it.
10:34 And scrap it now.