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Hodgson voices VAR concerns

Cape Town - Crystal Palace manager Roy Hodgson believes the introduction of Video Assistant Referee (VAR) technology to English football will create as many problems as it solves.

Monday's FA Cup clash against Brighton & Hove Albion will be the first use of VAR in a competitive match in England, but Hodgson has doubts about the system after watching it in action at the 2017 Confederations Cup in Russia.

"I experienced it during the Confederations Cup, albeit from a television studio," the Eagles boss said.

"It was chaotic there, so if you ask me what my opinion of it is, based on my experience of what happened during the Confederations Cup, it didn't work very well at all, because the communication between the referee and the guy on the machine wasn't working well.

"No one wanted goal-line technology and now we can't live without it so I am certainly not one of those people who would suggest there's no future for technology in the game.

"But the way our game is, and the fluidity of the game, and the way spectators expect the game to continue... Every time a player goes down injured, the fans get very frustrated when one player gets treated, be it their own player or an opponent player.

"There are a lot of questions to be answered with regard to how things can dovetail together, but if they can get it to dovetail together, and it stops gross injustices, then on our side of the fence we'd be all for it."

While the purpose of VAR is to assist the referee in making a decision, Hodgson doubts that it can completely eliminate controversy from the sport.

"The rider then is what is a gross injustice?" he said. "How many times are you going to need to see the incident before you can have an opinion? If three people see an incident, are they going to all have the same opinion?

"A lot of things that I see flagged up on television, 'Was it a penalty? Was it not? Was it offside? Was it not?' After watching it for a long period of time and with other people alongside, we can't come to a conclusion because one person will say 'Definitely yes', one will say 'Definitely no'.

"How are we going to get to a stage where we only use it for the gross injustices? That's my fear."

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