In recent weeks, refereeing has not been spared in England and Simon Hooper can attest to this. While officiating during the summit clash between Tottenham and Liverpool (2-1), on September 30, the English referee was strongly criticized for certain questionable decisions taken against the Reds and his use of VAR was widely questioned by the British press following the meeting. In order to reduce errors which could logically influence the course of matches in the future, Mark Bullingham, during a conference of Leaders Week in London, mentioned a rather surprising proposal: the introduction of robotic and autonomous refereeing in the Premier League.
“You should never have a situation where you degrade the audience experience at the stadium or at home. We have to be very careful about this. Of course, people used to complain that decisions were incorrect, and it’s important to make correct decisions, that’s the starting point. When it comes to technology, the question is: are there ways to make decisions faster? Because I think everyone hates that long break in the stadium or at home. You see technological innovations in semi-automatic offside, can this eventually become autonomous? And would this be a step towards completely precise decisions, but taken very quickly? So if we can do that, well, that would be better for the fans. This is an area to absolutely explore. Of course, we would consider any idea that comes up, but we really have to be careful not to further interrupt the flow of the game., declared the English leader. A media release which risks causing a stir across the Channel…
