Nigel Owens: My message to rugby and football over video technology

Next week, Premier League clubs will meet to vote on whether to stop using the Video Assistant Referee (VAR) technology next season.

I totally understand why there are calls to scrap it, but it is a shame because if technology is used in the right way, then it can only be beneficial for the game.

The simple truth is that there are some scenarios that even the referees that are at the top of their game right now, just won’t be able to spot. With the speed of the modern game, there are split-second incidents and decisions that are impossible to always get right without seeing them again, particularly in a busy stadium full of tens of thousands of screaming fans.

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Technology certainly has its part to play in modern sport. Look at tennis, which has got it spot on. The challenges are very factual, the ball is either in or out and there are no ifs or buts over these important decisions, and I think technology has helped tennis in that way. The same goes for cricket, they’ve been able to use technology in the right way and they have seen the advantages.

The problem with both football and rugby is that the technology is being overused. Unlike tennis and cricket, it’s not being used in a factual way, and the way the game is played and the current laws also contribute to that.

I’ve said this in many, many discussions with fellow referees and in rugby meetings over the years – if you look at rugby and football now, there is far more controversy and discussion points around decisions with the use of technology than we ever had before.

Before VAR, there were decisions that were controversial or even wrong and football fans would be up in arms about it. But it seems to be happening far more frequently since the technology was brought in, which tells you that it is not currently working, or at least not being used in the correct way.

That’s what I’d like to see happen with VAR. I’m not surprised that they are voting on getting rid of it because all of the controversial decisions happening week in, week out. But rather than scrapping it completely, those in football need to look over it and ask ‘how can we make this better, how can we be stricter in its use?’

They need to keep it simple. If you look at the goal line technology that’s been brought in, that’s worked really well. It’s either a goal or it’s not and now we have a definitive way to tell. There’s no ifs or buts, it’s nice and simple.

What football needs to do – and, to be honest, I think this is what rugby needs to do as well – is they need to look at technology as a last resort. It should be used when you just can’t humanly get that decision right and it needs to be kept straightforward and simple, yes or no.

If you have to use it for a decision that is open to interpretation, where one referee thinks one thing and a second referee thinks another, but they’re both right, then that’s not what technology should be used for. You should just let that be the decision of the referee.

If the referee thinks ‘Well, he is offside but he had no effect whatsoever on what happened next and therefore the goal is allowed’, then you shouldn’t have technology to decide that.

You’ve got to leave those decisions to the referees on the field.

What we are clearly seeing in football and in rugby is what I’ve been saying for many years. The referees on the field have taken their eye off the ball and they have become too relaxed in refereeing the game, knowing that if they miss an offside or a handball or a knock on, it doesn’t matter because the technology will come in and get it right for them.

That then takes away from the refereeing performance and decision making and opens it up to more use of VAR and the TMO.

What they need to do in football is not get rid of VAR but certainly reduce its use to something very, very, very simple. Was it handball or not? Did the player dive? Just keep it straight and simple.

If anything is open to interpretation and there is a grey decision where it could go either way, then forget it. Technology, in that case, does not help.

If football and rugby can use technology factually and in those black and white situations, then it will be doing what it needs to do. But at the moment, they are just not able to get that right.

Rather than getting rid of VAR, they need to discuss how to make the technology as simple, workable and productive as they can. If they can’t do that, then they need to either get rid of it from certain aspects of play

If you look at rugby, the TMO protocol used to be pretty clear and strict – it was to be used only in the act of scoring. You couldn’t use technology to go back five, 10 or even 50 metres, if not more sometimes, to see if somebody was onside or not. You couldn’t do that back then and as a result you didn’t have the amount of controversy we’re having today.

Once you open up technology to all areas of the field, it’s just going to be inconsistent and bring controversy because whether we like it or not, in football and in rugby, a lot of it is down to the referee’s interpretation, their experience and their ability to make a judgement call.

You just need to let the referees go out and do that. That’s the way to ensure you have your best officials refereeing games, as at the moment you have some refereeing at a level they probably wouldn’t be able to work at if they didn’t have the technology to make four or five decisions for them in the game.

Reducing the amount it is used will help the performance of our referees. There are a lot of top quality officials out there and they need to be allowed to referee and make the decisions without relying on technology, which at the moment takes away from their performance.

My message to rugby and football would be to sit down and find a way to get technology to work the right way for the benefit of the game. At the moment, it’s being overused and it’s simply not working.

Keep it simple, keep it factual and technology will do what it needs to do.