The FA Cup 2024/25 has made English football fans available an exhaustion of the Var-centered discourse, which surrounds the Premier League weekly.
Changes to the rules of the competition means that Var does not have to be used in this year’s FA Cup, much to facilitate the majority of fans in the country. Those in the championship and below are used to such bliss, but the Premier League players, managers and followers greeted the break.
The oldest cup competition in the world has not turned its back on the technology, but is not used in the fourth round. Here is the reason.
Before the 2024/25 season, the FA Cup Var used in games on the home site of the Premier League as well as in the semi-finals and in the final in the Wembley Stadium. Clubs outside the top level – even those with VAR skills that had fallen into the championship – went without the technology in home games.
However, in order to ensure fairness and consistency throughout the competition, Var has now been scrapped for the fourth round and beforehand. Even the Premier League stadiums did not use the official system in the third round of this year’s competition.
The decision was made to ensure that the same rules for each team were used in the entire competition to deal with previous complaints about the sporadic use of VAR and how an imbalance was created between the top division and Lower League clubs.
While Var still has to be used in the FA Cup 2024/25, it is used in the fifth round and beyond the event location. It is used in every game from the fifth round to the final, even with home relationships for clubs outside the Premier League.
A FA declaration in December was: “Video Assistant Referees (VAR) is only used in the fifth round 2024-25.
“It was agreed that Var will be used for each game in the fifth round of the competition until the final in the Wembley Stadium and will not be in operation for the third and fourth round.
“Var was only used in the Wembley Stadium and in the Premier League site due to the infrastructure, the workforce and the costs required for the operation, only used in the Emirates FA Cup for games.
“This decision ensures that there is a consistent referee approach for all clubs, which takes part in the same phase of the competition.”