Preferences of on the future use of VAR in the Premier League, by social grade

At the beginning of the 2019-2020 season, the English Premier League introduced Video Assistant Referees (commonly known as VAR) to all matches. This statistic shows the results of a representative survey of the British Public in relation to the English Premier League, presenting the opinions of British adults who watch the Premier League very or fairly frequently, on the future use of VAR within Premier League football matches. Responses have subsequently been categorized by the NRS social grade of the panelist.

The NRS social grades are a system of demographic classification used in the United Kingdom. The grades are grouped here into ABC1 and C2DE; these are taken to equate to middle class and working class, respectively.

Although the majority of panelists indicated that VAR should continue to be used within the English Premier League, 77 percent of panelists within the ABC1 social grade and 69 percent of panelists within the C2DE social grade indicated that the way in which it is used should be changed. The share of panelists within the C2DE social grade that indicated that it should continue being used without any changes was significantly higher than the share of panelists within the ABC1 social grade with this preference.