THE Premier League’s handling of its introduction of VAR was discussed at the IFAB Annual General Meeting at the end of February.

Before the meeting, the President of FIFA had made public his displeasure that the referees of the Premier League were not following the rest of the world.

This was one of the two concerns about Premier League referees.

It was felt they were ignoring the experience of other nations with VAR by not using the pitch-side monitor.

For example, in Major League Soccer in America, which incidentally was set up by an Englishman, former referee Howard Webb, the VAR, if he sees an incident which deserves further investigation, says ‘recommend a review’ as written in the VAR protocol.

I have seen videos from American and Australian matches, where the referee does not take action after reviewing the incident for himself.

However, the protocol does allow referees in some instances to accept the guidance of the VAR without viewing.

There seemed to be a view they want to restore the referees’ authority.

The Laws of the Game says: "The decisions of the referee regarding facts connected with play, including whether or not a goal is scored and the result of the match, is final."

The other complaint highlighted by the Premier League is the way VAR is used to determine offside.

Goals are sometimes disallowed when they are considered by VAR to be just centimetres nearer than the defender.

David Elleray, former Premier League referee now Technical Director of IFAB, said some while ago: "This isn’t why we introduced VAR."

Offsides are intended to prevent goal hanging or players gaining an advantage by being there.

A couple of centimetres is not an advantage.

Arsene Wenger, now FIFA Head of Global Football, asked at the meeting for the law to be changed and the IFAB have said they will be looking at this during the coming year.

While it is not envisaged anything will change for the rest of this season (if it ever gets played), changes are on the way.