EAMONN McManus has claimed the Betfred Super League would be better off without the video referee and captain’s challenge.
The St Helens owner launched an extraordinary attack on the officiating process in during the 2025 season, blasting it for slowing the game up too much and even claimed that it is not leading to more correct decisions.
Every match in Super League has been covered by a video referee since they all started to be broadcast live by Sky Sports as part of the 2024-26 broadcast deal, while captain’s challenge was introduced for this season.
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However, McManus believes the competition would benefit in terms of spectator experience and financially if both were rolled back.
“I want to watch a rugby game and I think what you find is most people will tolerate and understand refereeing decisions which are sometimes incorrect in a live game,” McManus told the League Express Podcast.
“But when we’re adding 20 minutes onto the game and still getting incorrect decisions – actually, more incorrect decisions – that is the worst of every world and it’s the single-biggest problem the game faces at this moment in time.
“It would cost nothing to change this and get back to what we need to be, and 99 percent of people involved in the game see it so let’s move back to that.
“That, in its own right, will have quite material financial gains to the clubs and the game.”
It is not the first time the Saints chief has spoken out against the video referee, calling for it to be abolished or its influence drastically reduced in a 2014 column in the Manchester Evening News.
Should McManus get his wish, however unlikely it is, it would solve the problem Super League is having to wrestle with over providing video referee coverage, which has existed in one form or another since 1996, for an extra game per round following next season’s expansion to 14 teams.
The 69-year-old revealed conversations with high-ranking Brisbane Broncos and Gold Coast Titans club officials who were guests of his at Super League games this season had hardened his viewpoint
“All of them said independently ‘the game is too slow’,” McManus said. “One area we have to look at, and this is the single biggest effect on finance and commerce, is the enjoyment of spectators.
“[The video referee] certainly needs to be parred down significantly. We can’t afford for the game to be two hours long as opposed to 80 minutes, but more importantly it takes the excitement out of the game.
“There’s no absolute solution to this because we don’t want games decided by incorrect decisions.
“But at the same time we don’t want to elongate and complicate a game and make it less of a spectator sport or less of an enjoyable game to watch and not eradicate that problem.”