Video assistant referee causes controversy every week in the Premier League, but how are decisions made and are they correct?
This season, we take a look at the major incidents to examine and explain the process both in terms of VAR protocol and the Laws of the Game.
Screenshot credit: NBC
Andy Davies (@andydaviesref) is a former Select Group referee, with over 12 seasons on the elite list, working across the Premier League and Championship. With extensive experience at the elite level, he has operated within the VAR space in the Premier League and offers a unique insight into the processes, rationale and protocols that are delivered on a Premier League matchday.
Referee: Craig Pawson
VAR: Andrew Madley
Time: 57 minutes
Incident: Overturn of Florian Wirtz‘s goal after it was ruled out for offside
What happened: Wirtz picked up a through ball into the Fulham penalty area and neatly scored past goalkeeper Bernd Leno, only for assistant referee Lee Betts to flag him offside.
VAR decision/review: It took some time, but VAR checked the on-field decision of no goal, and established that Wirtz was in an onside position before recommending that the goal was awarded.
Verdict: With the naked eye, it seemed that Wirtz had strayed into an offside position and the assistant was correct to disallow the goal. In fact, even the still TV footage left many agreeing that offside was the correct outcome.
However, the Semi-Automated Offside Technology (SAOT) review produced a different decision.
If you remember back when VAR first arrived, lines were drawn manually by a human VAR and their assistant. But since the last few matchdays of the 204-25 season, SAOT has taken control of judging if players are in an on/offside position, using tracking data as opposed to live footage. That is meant to give far greater accuracy and speed in key moments.
#FULLIV – 57′ VAR OVERTURN
VAR checked the referee’s call of no goal – and established that Wirtz was in an onside position and recommended that the goal was awarded. pic.twitter.com/AA3eq6pT9j
— Premier League Match Centre (@PLMatchCentre) January 4, 2026
But there are two key elements to this process that are unique to the Premier League vs. many leagues in Europe and the UEFA Champions League (UCL).
First, the Premier League uses Genius Sports technology SAOT system (also used in Belgium, Mexico and Brazil), which is a different system to that used in UCL and many of the big domestic leagues across Europe. Indeed, those leagues across Europe measure offside positions to the millimeter; the Premier League allows a tolerance level of 5 centimeters.
That, in theory, allows for less marginal decisions against the attacking team (as we saw in the early stages of VAR when lines were drawn on top of each other), with the rationale of creating more goals.
The Wirtz situation is a perfect example of this. As the Liverpool striker is within the “thicker” offside band under the Premier League system, the player is deemed to be onside; but in a UCL match, using stricter guidance with no 5cm tolerance, Wirtz would be deemed offside and the goal would have been disallowed.
Despite the application of SAOT, there is still a human element when a tight offside is being reviewed by VAR, which is the reason why the check at Fulham was relatively long.
The SAOT system will identify and recommend the “Kick Point” (the exact moment ball is played forward in the final pass before it reaches Wirtz), however it is at the discretion of the VAR to confirm they are happy with this, otherwise they will ask for the point to be moved a micro-frame either way.
Undoubtedly, it was this essential element of the process which caused the delay in the check, with the VAR uncomfortable that the original option was correct.
The Wirtz situation is not the first time the SAOT tolerance level has impacted things in the Premier League: Bruno Guimarães was in a similar position before Newcastle United‘s goal from Harvey Barnes against Manchester City in November, while Gabriel Gudmundsson was also ruled to be onside as Lukas Nmecha scored for Leeds United against Aston Villa in the same month.
