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No plans to broadcast live VAR audio after Luis Diaz offside fiasco

No plans to broadcast live VAR audio after Luis Diaz offside fiasco

Andy Headspeath 31 Oct 2023, 13:40 Last modified: 31 Oct 2023

There are no plans to broadcast live VAR communications, the chief executive of football's lawmaking body, IFAB, has said.

Luis Diaz's ruled out goal in the first half of Liverpool's defeat to Tottenham in September became one of the major talking points of the season, when it transpired that a miscommunication between the VAR and on-field officials had led to the perfectly legitimate strike being disallowed.

Liverpool received an apology over the incident from the PGMOL – the governing body for referees in England – while the VAR audio of the decision was also released.

However, Lukas Brud, the chief executive of IFAB – the International Football Association Board – has ruled out the possibility of live broadcasting of VAR communications during games, due to their 'chaotic' nature.

"I categorically say no, they shouldn't," Brud told BBC Radio 5 Live, when asked if fans should be able to hear decisions being made in real time.

"I was allowed to observe and see communication between match officials during a review and it is quite a chaotic situation, not in a negative sense but there's many people talking at the same time and I think it would be counterproductive for anyone to listen to all those voices talking to each other.

"Then you have the VAR and the assistant VAR, the replay operators, the referee and maybe even the assistant referees and fourth official, so all of a sudden it becomes quite a chaotic experience.

"We have given the green light to test the announcement of decisions to bring a little more transparency to decision making, but we are not prepared at this point to open up communication live to the audience."

Liverpool released an official statement calling for an investigation following Diaz's disallowed goal at Spurs, while the PGMOL have since released a number of 'key learnings' from the incident.

Brud also suggested that fans having access to live audio of communications from officials could 'create a very unsafe environment for referees'.

He said: "Football is different because everyone is putting a magnifying glass on every decision and every single word would then be analysed in the media and it would create a very unsafe environment for referees.

"They need to feel safe when they are focused on decision-making."

Regarding the issue of not being able to stop play to reverse incorrect decisions – a major talking point following the release of the Diaz offside audio – Brud rejected that idea that specific updates to the VAR rules are needed.

"We always have to remember these things don't happen very often," he said. "We should not immediately start questioning the entire set up because in one of thousands of matches this situation has occurred.

"Certainly we are going to improve if need be certain areas of VAR. Whether we need to solve an issue where humans made an error, let's see."