Referee Atkinson says wife and brother’s frontline war on coronavirus puts VAR flak into perspective

REFEREE Martin Atkinson ruefully recalls when VAR was the biggest issue in English football.

But with his wife and brother at the NHS frontline in this coronavirus crisis, the Premier League whistler does not need a second opinion about what is most important.

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He said: “It puts everything into perspective when you see what’s happening over these last few days, where the fatalities are increasing.

“We get wound up about a VAR call that we may or may not have got right, then we look at this and think, ‘There are people dying from a virus we have no control over’.

“It puts football into a position…  it certainly isn’t life and death.”

Atkinson, 49, certainly is far from alone in realising that Bill Shankly’s old saying simply is not true.

“You think we’ve got an important job in football but it pales into insignificance when you look at what they’re doing.

“Everybody that works on the frontline has that risk when they go to work.

“But they do it because they love their jobs.”

Atkinson loves his, too, despite all the abuse he gets.

He and two friends, with guest appearances by fellow match officials, raised more than £85,000 with events in 2016 and 2018.

The ref said: “Jon Moss normally does two or three days with us and Mike Riley normally does about 20 miles and then stops.

“We were planning to do another one this summer around the Euro host cities — 2,020 miles in 20 days in 2020.

“But that’s by the by now. Charities are now losing out with the London Marathon and other events cancelled.”

Atkinson hopes this virus will be beaten to allow football to restart quickly.

He said: “It’s my life. It’s what I’ve done for the last 20 years. I miss it a lot.

“But there are far more important things in life than football and refereeing.

“When the time comes and we go back out there, we will realise just how lucky we are.”