Three Quarters of Premier League Fans Want VAR Scrapped, Survey Finds

When the Football Supporters' Association first polled fans on VAR in 2017, nearly three-quarters backed its introduction. The same organisation now finds almost exactly the same proportion want it removed.

The FSA's second national VAR survey, drawing responses from 7,981 supporters across all 20 Premier League clubs, found 75% oppose the technology's continued use. More than half of those polled attend at least 15 matches per season, making this a verdict shaped overwhelmingly by committed matchgoers rather than casual observers.

The numbers suggest a crisis of institutional trust rather than a simple preference dispute. Ninety-five per cent of respondents said VAR reviews still take too long to resolve. Seventy-four per cent said the reasoning behind VAR decisions is not clear in the stadium, while 72% disagreed that the technology has made refereeing more accurate. For a system sold partly on delivering transparent, correctable officiating, those figures represent a wholesale failure of its central promise.

"The results show that most fans want VAR removed," Thomas Concannon, the FSA's Premier League network manager, said. "We've all lived with VAR for so long now that we've seen the negative impact it's had on the game. People are annoyed about the time that it takes, annoyed about the accuracy, and annoyed about the reduced spontaneity. It does take away from what football is meant to be and what those special moments are about."

Ninety-one per cent of respondents said VAR has harmed the spontaneity of goal celebrations and 90% disagreed that it has improved the matchday experience. The damage extends beyond the stadium: 94% said VAR makes watching football on television less enjoyable, a figure that implicates the product broadcasters pay billions to carry.

The dissatisfaction is not new. In 2021, the FSA found 63% of fans were already unhappy with VAR. That survey prompted no meaningful change. "The vast majority are reporting the same concerns five years on," Concannon said, "the loss of spontaneity when celebrating goals, and an overall worsening of the match-going experience."

The league's response adds another layer of friction. The Premier League acknowledged it "recognises the importance of minimising the impact of VAR on the supporter experience," while noting that its own research indicates fans "are largely in favour of keeping VAR, but improving the way it is used." That claim sits in direct tension with the FSA's finding that 81% of respondents said they prefer to watch games without VAR entirely, and 86% expressed concern about further expansion of its remit.

Independent reporting indicates senior sources from major football leagues regard VAR as permanent, a position that frames the FSA's planned talks with the Premier League and the Professional Game Match Officials Limited as negotiations over how the system operates, not whether it survives.

Every data point in the survey points to the same underlying demand: decisions made faster, reasoning communicated clearly in grounds, and accuracy that fans can actually observe improving. Whether the league treats the FSA's findings as a mandate for structural reform or another round of incremental adjustment will determine whether dissatisfaction, now at its highest recorded level, continues to grow.