Fans have reached the verdict - get the VAR out!

Three out of four Premier League fans are against VAR, according to a survey by the Football Supporters' Association - a verdict that feels less like frustration and more like fatigue.

Nearly 8,000 supporters took part, and the numbers are blunt:

- 90% say VAR has not improved the matchday experience.

- 91% believe it has damaged the spontaneity of goal celebrations.

- 94% think it makes watching football on TV worse.

The message is clear: the game feels different, and not in a good way.

"People are annoyed about the time it takes, the accuracy, the lack of spontaneity," said Thomas Concannon from the FSA. "It takes away from what football is meant to be."

And yet, for all the noise, VAR is not under real threat.

The Premier League insists the focus is on improving the system, not removing it. Internal research, the league says, suggests fans support VAR in principle - just not its execution:

- 72% of fans don’t believe VAR has improved refereeing accuracy.

- 74% say decisions are not explained clearly.

- 86% fear its role will only expand further.

And maybe that's the real issue - not just what VAR is, but what it's becoming.

There is, however, a contradiction at the heart of the debate.

Despite the backlash, officiating accuracy sits at around 96-97% since VAR's introduction. The league points to roughly 100 corrected decisions per season (goals, penalties, red cards that would have otherwise been wrong).

In simple terms, more decisions are right, but the feeling is that something else is being lost.

A goal is checked for minutes. A celebration paused, then muted. Margins measured down to a fraction... sometimes a shoulder, sometimes less. The kind of precision that solves debates, but doesn't always satisfy emotions.

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Even attempts to improve transparency, like referees announcing decisions in stadiums, have failed to convince. Fewer than half of fans see it as progress.

Interestingly, not all technology is treated the same. Goal-line technology enjoys overwhelming support of 93% in favour.

Still, a massive change is highly unlikely. In 2024, 19 of 20 clubs (all but Wolverhampton Wanderers) voted to keep VAR. To remove it, 14 clubs would need to support abolition, and that scenario feels almost impossible.