Former UEFA and Premier League referee Keith Hackett has called for the closure of Stockley Park as part of a radical change to how VAR should be operated after West Ham controversy
The retrospective technology came under severe scrutiny following a disastrous weekend of decision making which forced the refereeing body PGMOL to publicly acknowledge their mistakes, one of which cost the Hammers a point at Stamford Bridge on Saturday.
Maxwel Cornet’s late equaliser was ruled out for an alleged foul by Jarrod Bowen on Chelsea goalkeeper Edouard Mendy with Jarred Gillett at Stockley Park instructing on-field referee Andy Madley to review his decision which he did indeed overturn.
Now Hackett has slammed those in control of VAR, telling Football Insider his ideas on how to better use the apparatus.
“I have a seven-point plan to sort it,” he said.
“The first thing is, who is the guy, currently, running VAR? Who is in charge of it? After this weekend, fire them. Appoint someone immediately, to take control. We can’t wait until Howard Webb arrives in December.
“Start to put into operation the closure of Stockley Park because at the moment, it is too remote.
“Appoint a panel of VAR operators, only. Ex-referees and I’m not worried about a couple of players being in there if we train them correctly.
“Assign the same VAR to the same referee. The reason I say that is, I did the same with assistant referees. I brought in a process of referees having the same assistants. Add the VAR to that.
“Like in MLS, have VAR operating in a van outside the stadium or in a room within the stadium.
“After the match, review the decisions and discuss with managers and discuss with the media.
“Finally, they’d have to go through IFAB change, but we should all be able to listen in to these conversations that take place. It might enhance what we all think.”
Hackett has definitely proposed some drastic changes to the system but measures that may need to be taken.
With PGMOL’s admission, David Moyes’ side had a clear goal ruled out due to human error and it is clear that something needs to be done to ensure that doesn’t occur again so perhaps Hackett’s approach is feasible or certainly, aspects of it are achievable.
