The Premier League has defended the performance of its referees and VAR system, saying the rest of the world “look up” to English officials “as a model they would like to follow”.

The league’s chief football officer, Tony Scholes, reported on Tuesday a reduction in officiating errors and a decrease in VAR delays in the English top flight. His remarks came just over a week after the referee Michael Oliver received death threats after an apparent error in a match.

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Scholes said of refereeing standards: “The feedback that I’m getting from clubs is that the vast majority recognised significant progress in this area. But that is also the case with other leagues around the world, where they all look up to the match officials in this country and indeed the VAR process and VAR officials in this country as a model that they would like to follow. Sometimes it doesn’t feel that way here in England, but that’s the message that I get from people around the world.”

Twelve months ago Scholes admitted the implementation of VAR had been “nowhere near good enough” but this year he returned with a more positive message. Scholes said there had been 64 errors made by referees in key match incidents this season, up to and including game week 23, down from 80 over the same period a year ago. There were 70 VAR interventions during that time, with 66 correctly overturning a decision.

“That’s less than one intervention in three games, which shows that the interference of the VAR is perhaps not at the level that many of us perceive it is,” Scholes said. “We should also recognise that the number of VAR errors has gone down substantially from 20 to 13 too.

“I stress to clubs all the time that nobody here underestimates the significance and the impact of one single error. We know it can cost clubs points, can cost them results, can cost managers [their] positions potentially.

“It’s absolutely right that we continue to push these officials to be as good as they can be. But it’s also right that we acknowledge the progress that has been made, because we do not get the best performance out of people if we are constantly criticising, constantly beating [people] up over errors made. It’s right we should acknowledge the progress.”

Scholes confirmed that the length of VAR delays had also come down from more than a minute per match in the 2023-24 season to 40 seconds. It is a reduction that has occurred without semi-automated offside technology (SOAT), which had been expected to be implemented before Christmas but has met with problems in testing.

“We are making significant progress,” Scholes said of SAOT. “I have to confess given the difficulties that we had over the first few months of the season, I had severe doubts about this but we’ve made a lot of progress in this area now. We believe we’re going to be adopting the best system and the most accurate system. I’m hopeful that at some point this season we will be able to introduce SAOT technology, but I repeat the point made a number of times: we are not going to introduce it if we’ve got any doubts at all with regard to its operation.”

It was also confirmed that Chelsea and Manchester City will not have the start of their league season deferred if they go deep in the Club World Cup.

Fifa will stage a month-long tournament in the US this summer, with the final on 13 July, just a month before the Premier League starts on 16 August. Pep Guardiola has previously suggested City asked the league for an extension to their summer break, but Scholes said any such request would be rejected. “The calendar is squeezed as much as it it can be at the moment and we can’t afford to delay start the season,” he said.