The Video Assistant Referee (VAR) was incorporated into the Premier League in 2019 and has not gone smoothly since its introduction. In fact, the introduction of the VAR was delayed in English football with the EPL being the last amongst the big five leagues of Europe to introduce it. The German Bundesliga and Italian Serie A were the first adopters back in the 2017-18 season. The EPL hesitated for two years before a vote was made in favor of its use from the 2019-20 season. There have been high profile errors and missteps though, in the execution of the VAR in the Premier League which has caught the eye of Professional Game Match Officials Limited (PGMOL), the body that oversees refereeing. This has resulted in the EPL being the only big five league in which no referee has been selected by FIFA to officiate in the Qatar World Cup in the VAR department. VAR has emerged to have a very major influence on the game and its laws. 

One fact for sure is that VAR now brings more goals than it disallows. The first season of the VAR in the Premier League was a culture shock to both fans and players as a step that was supposed to bring fairness into the game was viewed by many as one that imposed an ‘injustice’. That season allowed in 27 goals in contrast to the 56 that were disallowed. Things are however improving as the just-concluded season has had 47 goals allowed while 43 have been disallowed. The game is also improving, offside is being tweaked while the game learns more and more. The VAR system is now being viewed as a system that allows net positives and benefits on the metrics rather than negatives. The use of VAR remains pretty static across the seasons, at an intervention of 0.32 per game -- or one every three games. That's pretty much standard across all the top European leagues be they big or small cutting through the top tier leagues all the way to the lowest ranking leagues. 

There is a trend developing with a higher percentage of penalty kicks being allowed after the referee had consulted the VAR. Of the 103 penalties awarded last season, 38 were made via VAR. This clearly shows that the referees rely on the VAR as a safety net in the making of the final decision which is to award or not to award the sports kick.  Last summer, the "Big Five" leagues all followed UEFA's lead by adding a tolerance level to VAR offside, so that if the lines you see on television are touching then the player will automatically be ruled onside. However, it is worth noting that whatever decision is made by the VAR just like whatever decision is made by the referee on the pitch, there will always be a group of fans that see it as the right call to make and another group of fans that feels aggrieved who will believe VAR has worked against them.