Gary Neville has urged the Premier League to allow fans to hear discussions between referees and VAR officials during top-flight matches this term.
After much deliberation, English sides backed the introduction of Video Assistant Referees back in November 2018, with the technology implemented at the beginning of the 2019/20 campaign.
However, VAR has mainly come in for widespread criticism since it was introduced - with the majority of complaints related to the time taken to reach decisions. Some controversial calls last term even saw some people call for VAR officials to explain their decisions after matches; something that Neville would not like to see.
But the former Manchester United stalwart believes that more could - and should - be done to keep fans abreast of discussions between referees and VAR officials when decisions are made instead of keeping people in the dark.
Neville, speaking on the Overlap, in partnership with Sky Bet , said: “I don't think referees now should do interviews after the game. What I do think we should do, is open up VAR and potentially open up comms on the pitch so that the referees, when they’re speaking to be the VAR communication on decision, you know what's happening."
In his role as a commentator for Sky Sports, Neville is actually able to hear the discussions that take place when decisions are made - something he believes should be afford to fans.
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He added: “We’ve got two or three screens which is what we've got the game on, which has got the replays. And then in the middle, we've got the VAR screen. So, we're seeing all the replays going through all the various different replays that Stockley Park are asking for.
"And then the Stockley Park official will say to the referee, ‘I'm looking at this’, and he’ll be talking to him, talking him through it saying, ‘look, I've got something here’, and he'll move him through it and say, ‘stop the game, blow your whistle’, and he'll be talking him through it all the way.
“We're part of it so we take it for granted that we hear this but I don't think there's anything that I hear, that fans wouldn't to think [about the referees] they're quite professional, they're quite good at what they do.
“Also, you're hearing the reasoning behind them being called to the screen so I think my view would be forget this my post-match interviews because we just can be asking them difficult questions and putting them under pressure as much old product. We'd know what had happened at the time in the VAR stuff if actually we just opened the comms up and the mics up so people at home [can hear], which I don't think there’s a problem with.”
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