Premier League and EFL official Bobby Madley reveals he hates VAR and that it’s ruining football

Premier League and EFL official Bobby Madley publicly reveals he hates VAR and that it’s ruining football for everyone.

The referee, who officiates matches in the English Football League (EFL) and is a fourth official for Premier League games, said video assistant referee technology in football takes the “emotion away” from the game.

The EFL doesn’t use VAR in regular league games, but it has been in use for Premier League matches 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,” he said while 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.”

Bobby Madley refereed 91 Premier League matches between 2013 and 2018 before being sacked by PGMOL for sending a video mocking a disabled person.

He moved to Norway, officiating in lower leagues, and returned to English football as a National List referee in February 2020.

He officiated one Premier League match in each of the 2022-23 and 2023-24 seasons but none in the 2024-25 season.

“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. 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 continued.

“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.”

Here’s how fans reacted as Premier League and EFL official Bobby Madley reveals he hates VAR and that it’s ruining football…

@DaioGoddard: Spot on. Spending 5 minutes trying to find ways to disallow goals

@El_Cunto76: This guy will be delivering for Evri next week an all

@Mr_Drakes: lol the refs don’t even like it.

@thornton_gavin: It was brought in to take mistakes out of the game & since it came in every Monday morning after the weekend games var is in focus because of the mistakes it made..

@MitchHalley: It’s the worst thing they have ever brought in to the game. Most goals have a delay now and when you are inside the stadium you have no idea what’s is happening. Completely kills the moment

@StuJChapman: We’re with you Bobby.

@legendkiller2k8: Only one club had the balls to vote against it that was @wolves 19-1 never forget.

@ghostrider3588: Premier League clubs had the chance to scrap it. All of them apart from Wolves voted to keep it. So blame the clubs

@goonerck1: I hate it even more when the officials still make the wrong decisions!

@GeezaNews: It’s a passion killer

@tod1877: Fuck it off then

@redwatto: I think he speaks for most referees. What’s the point in spending 10 years making the on field decision to then making a decision for a panel 250 miles away to change it

@xabilution: Finally a ref admits it too. It’s killing football.

@Aidan_Gamble: And immediately becomes my favourite referee.

@TrueBlueWhoDat: Of course he hates it, he’s one of the worst refs in the game so it highlighting his constant fuck ups is gonna irk him.

@harryoliver07: Get more decisions right then, maybe we wouldn’t need it

@jamielev: He’s bang on btw