The Premier League’s refereeing body is undergoing a major overhaul with chief Howard Webb working on creating a pool of ‘VAR specialists’ to boost accuracy.
There will also be a new VAR manager to replace Neil Swarbrick, who is retiring at the end of this season, as well as Adam Gale-Watts taking over as technical director and Jon Moss becoming Select Group director.
A flux of new coaches will be brought in to work with on-field referees on their tactical awareness in fixtures, too.
This serious collection of changes is at the behest of Webb, whose team of ‘VAR specialists’ will focus solely on being video officials, whereas this season there have been on-field referees filling in at Stockley Park – such as David Coote, who will referee Newcastle-Tottenham on Sunday and then act as VAR for Manchester City-Arsenal on Wednesday.
According to PGMOL statistics, shown to Mail Sport on Tuesday, there has been a stark increase in accuracy since the mid-season World Cup.
Howard Webb, the head of Premier League referees, plans to recruit a team of VAR specialists
Brighton protest a decision with referee Stuart Attwell during their recent defeat at Tottenham
PGMOL say errors made by the VAR technology have gone down since the World Cup break
Figures show that 33.3 per cent fewer mistakes have been made since the tournament in Qatar.
Likewise incorrect interventions are down from occurring every 24.3 games to 37.5 games, and missed interventions are down from 21.4 to 12.2.
The stats were collated by the Independent Key Match Incidents Panel, who meet each Thursday to deliver their verdict on major decisions in matches.
Previously secret, the five-person panel is now known to be made up of Rob Green, Karen Carney, Jonathan Walters, Steven Reid and Terry Burton.
Webb took over from Mike Riley midway through this season with a view to ensuring officiating in England is the envy of other countries, much like the quality of football is considered to be.
The video technology continues to cause controversy with fans confused and frustrated by what they saw as inconsistent handball decisions last weekend.
Earlier this month, Webb had to apologise to Brighton for the third time this season after they were wrongfully denied a penalty by VAR when Kaoru Mitoma was fouled by Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg in their defeat at Tottenham.
Webb apologised to Brighton and acknowledged Mitoma should have been awarded a spot-kick when brought down by Hojbjerg in their 2-1 defeat at Spurs on April 8.
Brighton were not awarded a penalty despite Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg’s foul on Kaoru Mitoma
Fabinho went unpunished for this bad tackle on Evan Ferguson in the FA Cup fourth round tie between Brighton and Liverpool in January
Pervis Estupinan saw a goal wrongly disallowed for offside at Crystal Palace after the lines were drawn in the wrong place by VAR
VAR Michael Salisbury at Stockley Park reviewed the foul but a penalty was not given to Roberto De Zerbi’s side.
Brighton received their first apology after referee David Coote and VAR Neil Swarbrick failed to send off Fabinho for a bad tackle on Evan Ferguson during January’s FA Cup fourth round win over Liverpool.
The second came when Pervis Estupinan saw a goal incorrectly disallowed in their 1-1 Premier League draw at Crystal Palace after VAR drew the offside lines in the wrong place on replays.
Last weekend, fans were left bemused that Manchester United’s Harry Maguire wasn’t penalised for a handball in the penalty area during their 2-0 win over Nottingham Forest.
Manchester United captain Harry Maguire (right) handled the ball while trying to head clear a Nottingham Forest corner – but VAR decided his arm was in a natural position
Steve Cooper was adamant that Nottingham Forest should have been awarded a penalty
West Ham’s Michail Antonio conceded a penalty when Arsenal’s Gabriel Martinelli stuck a shot that hit his outstretched arm on Sunday
There wasn’t a great deal of protest from the West Ham players after the penalty was given
Steve Cooper, the Forest manager, described it as ‘a really poor error’ and questioned why VAR didn’t award his team a penalty.
Earlier in the afternoon, West Ham’s Michail Antonio did concede a penalty after Arsenal’s Gabriel Martinelli struck a shot that hit him on the arm.
In the same game, Declan Rice wasn’t penalised for a handball in the lead-up to West Ham being awarded a penalty for Gabriel’s foul on Lucas Paqueta.
And on Monday night, Leeds were left fuming after Liverpool’s Trent Alexander-Arnold wasn’t punished for handball in the build-up to Cody Gakpo’s opening goal in a 6-1 win.
Declan Rice was adjudged not to have deliberately handled after Thomas Partey bounced the ball up onto his arm in the lead-up to a penalty that was awarded to West Ham
Leeds were left fuming after Trent Alexander-Arnold got away with this ‘handball’ in the build-up to Liverpool’s opening goal of their 6-1 win on Monday night