Premier League to Publish Referee and VAR Panel Verdicts

The Premier League will publish the full judgments of its Key Match Incidents Panel for the first time during the 2026-27 season, giving supporters access to formal assessments of major refereeing and video assistant referee decisions. BBC Sport reported that the measure is intended to provide greater transparency around how contentious incidents are evaluated.

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The release of the panel's findings is one of three transparency measures being introduced. Selected direct explanations from referees or VAR officials will also be shared through the Premier League's Match Centre account on X, its website and its app. Those explanations may include an on-field referee's reason for making a decision or the VAR's reasoning for declining to intervene.

RefCam use will also expand, allowing broadcasters to carry selected audio between referees and players for the first time. The material will not be live, and conversations between referees and VAR officials will remain excluded. BBC Sport says the footage is expected to be used once or twice during each round of fixtures.

The Key Match Incidents Panel has met weekly since the 2022-23 season to examine incidents involving goals, penalties, red cards and other significant calls. Its five members comprise three former players and coaches, one Premier League representative and one representative from refereeing body Pro Ref. Each incident is put to a vote, with a simple majority determining whether a decision was correct.

The panel assesses the on-field decision separately from the VAR response. Because VAR operates under the higher clear-and-obvious threshold, the panel can conclude that a referee made the wrong call while also deciding that VAR was correct not to intervene. It also considers incidents outside VAR's remit, including missed second yellow cards.

According to judgments seen by BBC Sport, the panel recorded 25 VAR errors last season, compared with 18 in 2024-25, 31 in 2023-24 and 38 in 2022-23. The Premier League and Pro Ref are continuing discussions with football's law-making body, the International Football Association Board, which has not permitted live broadcasts of VAR discussions. The published panel findings and selected audio therefore expand public access without including live referee-VAR exchanges.