Everton needed VAR offside rule change mooted for 23/24 against Liverpool
Everton were right to feel aggrieved when VAR ruled out Conor Coady’s goal in the Merseyside derby on 3 September but rules could be changed.
According to The Times, the Premier League are set to propose that the semi-automatic offsides that have worked brilliantly so far in the Champions League are introduced to the top flight of English football.
The change is designed to not only improve the accuracy of the manually drawn lines that are in action right now but also greatly reduce the time to make a decision to keep the game flowing as best it can.
Half of the clubs in the Premier League already have the hawkeye technology required too, even though Everton are not one of them, which means that implementation for the 2023-24 season could be feasible.
“We are seeing that under the semi-automated system decisions are being made within the time of natural stoppages for celebrations after a goal is scored rather than players waiting around for several minutes,” a source with knowledge of Hawkeye told The Times.
With this in place, Coady’s goal against his former side may well have stood and there certainly wouldn’t have been the enormous wait to find out the fate of the decision.
That can only be good for the game and the fans in the ground who have to sit there completely in the blue about what decision might be made with no real communication to be heard.
Even those on TV can’t hear the talks between the man in the middle and Stockley Park like you can in rugby which is a whole different kettle of fish.
There is still a long way to go with VAR and it will be a good thing for football in the long run but Everton will be cursing that it hasn’t progressed faster or they might have beaten their fiercest rivals earlier this month.