Neil Swarbrick, the Premier League’s head of video assistant refereeing (VAR), appears to be planning to retire at the end of the current campaign. This season has seen a number of contentious VAR decisions, most recently highlighted by Brentford’s equalizer against Arsenal at the Emirates Stadium. It is believed that the decision was made in the past and is unrelated to the system’s more recent high-profile problems.

On the same weekend, Chelsea were not awarded a penalty against West Ham despite Tomas Soucek seemingly handling the ball in the penalty box. Even on Sunday afternoon in the Blues’ fixture against Tottenham, Hakim Ziyech was shown a red card before referee Stuart Atwell went back on his decision following a VAR review.

Lee Mason was at fault for Ivan Toney’s goal being allowed to stand against the Gunners earlier this month, resulting in the official leaving his role with VAR by ‘mutual consent’. Some of the poor decisions resulted in PGMOL chief Howard Webb officially apologising to the likes of Arsenal as criticism continues to be aimed at match officials each weekend.

According to The Athletic, Swarbrick is set to retire at the end of the 2022/23 campaign but his successor is yet to be decided. Swarbrick finished a long on-field career at the end of the 2017/18 season and was appointed to head up VAR before its implementation at the start of the 2019/20 campaign.

During his time at the helm, the aim of the VAR system has been to improve decision-making around goals, penalty calls, direct red card incidents and mistaken identity — but criticism continues to be aimed at PGMOL.