[Neil Jones]

It's not announcing the decision that's needed, it's the explanation behind the decision - and you get that by hearing any discussion between the ref and VAR.

Guess the difference with the TMO in rugby is that the ref usually calls the TMO into action and in recent years it's evolved into a communication between the two, whilst the VAR seems to automatically come into action and its only if the ref goes to a monitor they're nothing more than the messenger.

I've never understood why in football you can never hear any of the ref discussions. They're obviously miked up to something somewhere, but it never goes any further. Its in contrast to rugby and many other sports you can pretty much everything said and you get the full "Did Player 7 for Oxbridge get the ball down or was his arm in the way?" sort of thing.