Premier League to canvass clubs on whether they want VAR to check corner awards

The Premier League will canvass its clubs on whether they want to allow VAR to check corner kick awards from next season.

The game’s lawmaking body, the International Football Association Board (IFAB), has given competitions the option of checking corners from this summer onwards, provided it causes no delay to the kick being taken.

The option is being taken up for this summer’s World Cup in North America, but the Premier League still has a decision to make over whether it wishes to introduce the change for next season.

Clubs were briefed about the law changes by the league’s director of football Tony Scholes at a meeting on Thursday, and the Press Association understands a survey will be sent out to clubs seeking their views.

Meanwhile, UEFA is set to bring together the Premier League and other European top divisions this summer in an effort to find common ground on VAR.

The Press Association understands there is a determination within UEFA to reach an alignment on how the VAR protocol is interpreted, and that efforts to find a more unified approach for next season will be discussed after this summer’s World Cup.

UEFA’s referees chief Roberto Rosetti said last month at a briefing in Brussels that VAR was in danger of straying away from its original mission of correcting clear and obvious mistakes and becoming too “microscopic”.

“I believe we need to, at the end of the season, speak about this, because we cannot go in this direction of microscopic VAR intervention,” Rosetti said.

“We love football like it is.”

Speaking about one example where there were different interpretations – handball – Rosetti added: “I believe that in Europe, we must speak only one technical language. For us, this is the target. We cannot speak different technical languages across Europe. It’s not good.

“We need only one technical interpretation. We are speaking a lot. We were speaking a lot before the season – we need to speak again.”

As of February 13, the Premier League compared favourably to the Champions League on the average number of on-field reviews per game – 0.15 this season compared to 0.36 in the premier European competition.