Referee Bobby Madley has said he “hates” the video assistant referee technology in football because it takes the “emotion away” from the game.
Madley officiates matches in the English Football League (EFL) and is a fourth official for Premier League games.
The EFL does not use VAR in regular league games, but it has been employed across matches in England’s top flight since the start of the 2019-20 season.
“As a fan, hate it, hate it. Love the Championship, love League One – I’m still a fan,” said Madley, who was speaking at the Cheltenham Science Festival during an event on technology in sport.
“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.
“It [VAR] 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 refereed 91 Premier League matches between 2013 and 2018 until he was sacked by Professional Game Match Officials Limited (PGMOL) after sending a video mocking a disabled person to a friend.
He moved to Norway and officiated in the country’s lower league before accepting an opportunity to return to English football as a National List referee in February 2020.
He took charge of one Premier League game in 2022-23 and another the following season but did not referee a top-flight match in 2024-25.
“There’s so much money in football, it’s business-driven. So any mistake is perceived to cost people money,” added Madley.
“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.”