Referee Bobby Madley says VAR is ruining football's emotion

South Wales Guardian

05-06-2025

Madley, who takes charge of games in the EFL and is a fourth official for Premier League matches, spoke out about the technology which continues to be a source of controversy in football.
He said the introduction of VAR had meant that moments like Sergio Aguero's stoppage-time winner to hand Manchester City their first Premier League title in 2012 would not be repeated.
'As a fan, hate it, hate it. Love the Championship, love League One, I'm still a fan,' the Yorkshire-born referee said.
'I love League One because you score a goal, you look at the referee… you look at the assistant, he hasn't put his flag up, it's a goal.
'And that Sergio Aguero moment that we had years ago, where the referee was blowing, nobody's flagging, they've won the league.
'You are never, ever going to see that again in football, because they'll score in that moment and what will happen is the referee will stand there, everyone will panic, they're just checking potential offside 15 seconds ago.
'It takes that emotion away from it and football is a game where there could be one moment in the game, one goal, and that's it.
'To take that emotion away, to have to wait and wait, and what feels like an eternity, as a fan, I'm not a huge fan of that experience.'
Madley, who was speaking at the Cheltenham Science Festival during an event on technology in sport, said football was a billion-pound business and the use of technology was inevitable.
'There's so much money in football, it's business driven. So any mistake is perceived to cost people money,' Madley said.
'And I don't think most football fans were clambering over each other to get video technology.
'The players weren't, the referees weren't, but the people who run football, they are multimillion-pound and billion-pound people, and they had issues with referees getting things wrong.
'I think we've got to the stage where people go, 'Sorry, we're ruining football with this now'.
'But we knew the monster that had been created, as referees, we knew what was coming. But I thought, so that's where we are.'
Madley said the use of VAR had changed the psychology of refereeing because before, if mistakes were made, you would not know until after the game had finished.
'All of a sudden you've got to process 'I've made a wrong decision' in front of 75,000 people, in front of 100million people watching. What if I make another one?' Madley said.
'You know, I can't keep making wrong decisions because sometimes the players are going to say, 'How many more?'
'If you're sent to the screen for a second time, the trust weighs a little bit and that's a dangerous place to be as a referee.
'When people stop trusting your decision-making, that can be a very dangerous place.
'That's why we have so much training with VAR and that's why we have that bar set as a clear and obvious error.'
The Professional Game Match Officials Limited, the English game's referees' body, has been approached for comment.