Chief refereeing officer Howard Webb is leading a TV pilot to air Premier League VAR audio for the first time next Monday.

Fans of the Premier League are finally going to be able to listen in on the discussions with and involving the VAR officials next Monday, though the audio won’t be broadcast live.

ESPN report that chief refereeing officer Howard Webb is leading a pilot to air VAR audio publicly next Monday, hoping to bring greater clarity for fans, coaches, and players.

The show from Premier League Productions will air on Monday, May 15th, and audio of key decisions from throughout this season will also be shown by Sky Sports on the same day.

As it stands, the plan is to release the officials’ audio more regularly next season, to help with transparency.

You’d imagine that will depend on how the pilot goes down with supporters.

On the one hand, it’s definitely true that people are generally more willing to accept controversial decisions if they can see the logic and difficulties behind making them.

There will certainly be factors the officials considered that passed the average fan by, and getting the chance to hear the explanations should help.

At the same time, there are going to be decisions that certain fanbases vehemently disagree with, regardless of the explanations given. In those circumstances, the unsatisfactory explanations might just make the decisions even more frustrating.

FIFA don’t allow VAR audio to be released live during a match, so that was never on the table.

Perhaps someday we’ll see that change, and end up with a system like in rugby, where you can listen to the referees live. But that’s up to FIFA, not the Premier League.

For now, a retrospective listen to the thinking behind some of the season’s key decisions is the best we can hope for.