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Nottingham Post
Nottingham Post
Sport
Matt Davies

Bringing VAR to the Championship will stop Nottingham Forest being robbed again, says Reds legend

The role of VAR has dominated conversation around the Premier League at various points in the season.

If it wasn't for Brexit it might the most divisive debate in the country!

Personally, I'm a fan of VAR. In fact, I would like to see it in the Championship.

Imagine it was in place last season. Think how many more points Nottingham Forest would have won.

That Kemar Roofe goal at Leeds would never have stood and Dwight Gayle would have been pulled up for diving at West Brom.

They were both massive injustices that cost Forest four points and I'm sure there were other incidents that impacted on results, such as the disallowed goal against Preston.

People say it takes the emotion out of the game, that supporters can't celebrate goals anymore.

They still celebrate goals, but they are starting to accept there could be a VAR review. It's a different way of doing things, but the reviews take place as quickly as possible.

What I do hope is that the use of VAR is refined. Come the end of the season you need to have a full review to keep the best parts of it and remove things that don't work well, for example accidental handball and the impact that is having.

That might pacify the doubters a little bit.

Garry Birtles was in conversation with Matt Davies

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