England's Harry Maguire urges Premier League to lead the way with VAR standard

The Manchester United defender is unhappy at the low threshold being used to award penalties across the continent at both club and international level.

Maguire was in the England side that drew 1-1 in North Macedonia on Monday night, the hosts having taken the lead as captain Enis Bardhi scored the rebound after his penalty was saved by Jordan Pickford.

The spot-kick was awarded following a VAR intervention, with England debutant Rico Lewis punished for catching Bojan Miovski with a stray hand.

It was the latest in an ever-growing list of incidents to draw criticism from all-quarters, with Arsenal boss Mikel Arteta recently charged by the Football Association after labelling the officiating in a defeat at Newcastle both “embarrassing” and a “disgrace”.

Arsenal and Liverpool have also issued club statements this season criticising the standard of refereeing, while Champions League officials have been questioned with other examples, such as

Ukraine’s late shout for a penalty in their crucial Euro 2024 qualifier against Italy turned down.

“For me, penalties in the last six months, a year or so, especially in the Premier League, all over the world really, the Champions League, they are given for anything,” Maguire said, having arguably been lucky not to concede a spot-kick of his own in Skopje.

“They are so soft. They are making life so hard for defenders to defend the way it should be. You should be able to defend.

“You should be able to move your arm, you should be able to move your body, you should be able to make contact, you should be able to move your hands and get there.

“Nowadays, penalties are given for everything. Absolutely for everything. It’s such an important part of the game.

“I understand it’s an important part of the game, what should be a penalty, what shouldn’t be a penalty but there’s far too many soft penalties given at the moment.”

There have been calls for VAR to be scrapped, severely altered or run by former professional players in recent weeks.

Maguire, though, believes the Premier League should be looking to set the bar for how VAR is used across the world.

“I think the threshold of giving penalties definitely needs to change,” he added.

“I think the Premier League, the biggest league in the world, needs to start it, need to come up with something because I’ve seen some penalties in the Premier League since the start of this season which, for me, are just ridiculous.

“It’s not just at my club, watching them each weekend, I see them given for handballs where I don’t know where lads are supposed to put their arms; minimal contact, it’s a contact sport.

“Starting with the biggest league in the world, which is the Premier League, they need to set the standard and the threshold needs to be a little bit higher than it is at the moment.”