Manchester United fans almost unanimous in calling for VAR change

The Manchester United Supporters Trust is calling on Premier League clubs to listen to fans ahead of the vote, which has been scheduled for June 6.

A new poll by MUST of 14,111 supporters almost unanimously (99.4%) called for VAR to be changed, with less than 1% supporting keeping the current system.

The poll was conducted ahead of the June 6 vote on whether to keep VAR in the Premier League.

The results are the product of unprecedented cooperation between MUST and the Club, with the survey initially sent to over 100,000 MUST members and then distributed by United via email to all season ticket and cup holders and on its Twitter account (96,000 trackers).

Other survey findings include:

• Fans attending the match are more likely to want VAR to be scrapped than supporters in the armchair, with 51% of Reds attending the match wanting the system to go away entirely, compared to 17% of viewers.
• Season ticket holders want the ban the most, with 52% backing the ban against 45% of casual match-goers.
• Under-65s want VAR to be scrapped more strongly than over-65s, with 53% supporting scrapping compared to 41% for the older group.

Fans who want VAR reformed, rather than abolished, were also asked how they would like it to change. The two most prominent improvements requested were related to better communication so that fans in the stadium can understand the decisions made alongside quicker decisions, followed by VAR only being used to confirm clear and obvious errors.

Speaking about the results, a MUST spokesperson said: “When Manchester United exercise their vote on VAR on June 6, they must take these results into account. Almost unanimously, football fans are sick to the back teeth of VAR. It has made the game worse, not better, and Premier League clubs have an opportunity to do something about it in the upcoming vote.

“We are not surprised that the group most opposed to VAR are season ticket holders and other fans of matches. Again and again, the ground fan is left in the dark as lines are drawn on a screen in Stockley Park, destroying the atmosphere in the stadium. It’s time to abandon the failed experiment of VAR and either get rid of it altogether or make fundamental reforms.”

Fellow fan groups United 1958 and the TRA agreed to run an identical survey to gauge the level of sentiment among the United fanbase about the upcoming vote. A strong 95.9% of TRA members want VAR to be scrapped, while the 1958 poll returned 84.6% voting to scrap it.

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