00:00 A Liverpool goal wrongly ruled out for offside by VAR against Tottenham has sparked controversy.
00:07 Keith Hackett, former head of the PGMOL, told me about the decline in standards.
00:12 In your opinion, has VAR been a success or a failure?
00:16 I think at this moment in time, I think it's a bit of both, but mainly leading towards
00:23 failure, particularly when we consider this weekend.
00:27 When you say that the standards of the current referees in the PGMOL, do you think the standards
00:34 have dropped or do you think that this is the reason perhaps why we're seeing so many
00:38 controversies week in, week out?
00:40 If they have dropped, what's caused that?
00:43 I believe the standards have dropped and I think that was down to the management of Mike
00:50 Riley.
00:53 I left the scene, I retired to take up another role and we had 10 world-class referees, if
01:02 not more.
01:05 Outstanding referees and all I've witnessed is a decline in standards.
01:09 From a technical point of view, referees run in all directions thinking you're getting
01:13 more and more detached from play and if you're detached from play, then you're unable to
01:18 go through the process of a referee in decision-making, which is see, recognise, think and act.
01:27 If you don't see an incident, how can you get it right?
01:30 I think that what we've seen with VAR is we've seen the development of lazy refereeing.
01:39 I liken it to a tightrope walker.
01:43 You've got no net and you're walking across, it can be between two high-rise buildings,
01:52 you're going to watch every step and you're going to be very careful, you're going to
01:55 be focused.
01:56 But interestingly, if you had a net that you could fall into, your focus levels do drop.
02:02 If VAR and the technology is here to stay, as the PGOL like to make quite clear, they
02:07 don't want to get rid of it, what can be done to improve its use?
02:11 It needs to be very clear processes that are in place, very clear training.
02:20 You know, why are air traffic controllers good at their job?
02:28 Because they're focused, they're doing it day in, day out.
02:32 Why does the pilot, before he goes down the runway, does a checklist of his aircraft?
02:41 And this should be no different with VAR.
02:44 You know, the technology is pretty sound, apart from the comments that I've made regarding
02:51 the offside lines and the communication.
02:55 But the criteria of communicating it clearly is broken down this weekend to the point that
03:01 we've had a wrong decision.
03:03 [BLANK_AUDIO]
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