Premier League to publish verdicts on referee and VAR decisions

The full judgements made by the Key Match Incidents Panel on referee and video assistant referee decisions will be shared with fans for the first time this season.

It is one of three measures brought in by the Premier League, external to improve transparency, alongside the publishing of direct explanations of officials, and broadcasting RefCam with audio of a referee talking to players.

The five members of the KMI Panel have met since the 2022-23 season, but until now the full judgements have been kept private - though there was a tendency for clubs to leak the information.

Every major incident is assessed and voted on, with feedback provided to clubs and officials.

The Premier League believes releasing the document will give full transparency about the evaluation of decisions.

Selected direct quotes of the referee and/or the video assistant referee will be published on the Premier League's Match Centre account on X, on the Premier League website and the Premier League app to try to provide the rationale behind a decision.

Previously, the account published a general summary of an incident rather than the real-time explanations and thought processes of officials.

This will include a referee's description of why they have given a decision, or the VAR's direct reasoning for why they have not intervened.

The expansion of the use of RefCam will for the first time allow the broadcast of audio between the referee and the players.

This will not be live, nor will it include any of the conversation between the referee and the VAR, but it will be used in-game one or two times in each round of fixtures.

The Premier League and Pro Ref are trying to take steps to increase the transparency over decisions while still being limited by the International Football Association Board's (Ifab) refusal to permit the live broadcast of VAR discussions.

The Premier League is to continue discussions with Ifab about allowing more VAR communication to be shared with the public.

The KMI Panel meets every week to dissect each decision, from goals to penalties to red cards.

It has five members: three former players and coaches, plus one representative each from the Premier League and referees' body Pro Ref.

The KMI Panel was created by the Premier League clubs in 2022 to take performance stats out of the hands of the refereeing body.

It is not intended to look at each incident like any fan or manager would. It takes into account the laws of the game and, crucially, how the Premier League expects its games to be refereed.

That is why the list of errors is not as extensive as supporters would expect.

The KMI Panel first looks at the decision of the on-field referee team, and then of the VAR.

As the VAR is operating to a higher threshold - clear and obvious - there are times when the KMI Panel will say the referee was wrong but the VAR was correct not to intervene.

The KMI Panel also considers situations which are not reviewable by VAR, such as second yellow cards missed.

A simple majority is then required to determine if the decision was correct or not.

Last season's judgements, seen by BBC Sport, show there were 25 VAR errors, up from 18 in the 2024-25 campaign

It was still a marked improvement on previous years, with 31 errors in 2023-24 and 38 in 2022-23.

The results also come with comments from the members of the panel to explain the reasoning for their decision.

It is also used to create the performance-related payments to referees at the end of each season.

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