Saturday, December 21, 2024

VAR vote: Premier League clubs unlikely to vote to scrap VAR

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As yet, Wolves are the only club to publicly declare their intention to vote in favour of scrapping VAR.

Nottingham Forest declined to comment, but given their recent statements over VAR they could side with Wolves.

Leicester City and Ipswich Town will both be at the meeting after their promotion to the Premier League. Neither club has communicated their views on the vote but VAR does not operate in the Championship.

BBC Sport understands Liverpool are in favour of keeping VAR – despite calling for a “review with full transparency” of VAR in October after they said an incorrectly disallowed goal in their defeat by Spurs resulted in “sporting integrity being undermined”.

Three other unnamed Premier League clubs told BBC Sport they were not in favour of scrapping VAR, with one suggesting there was widespread support for VAR but that most clubs wanted to see improvements in how it was deployed.

Several other clubs contacted by BBC Sport did not want to offer guidance.

Manchester City, Arsenal, Liverpool and Aston Villa have all qualified for next season’s Champions League, where VAR is in operation. While no guarantee that those clubs would vote in favour of keeping VAR, playing VAR-operated Champions League football could be more difficult if its removed from the Premier League.

That could also be the case for those playing in the Europa League and Europa Conference League, where VAR is also in operation. Those places will be determined on the final day of the Premier League season on Sunday, with Manchester United, Newcastle United, Tottenham and Chelsea in contention.

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