UEFA’s head of refereeing Roberto Rosetti has admitted there is widespread dissatisfaction with how VAR is affecting football, as lead referee officers from England, Spain, Germany, France and Italy gathered to discuss a more uniform approach to decision-making. Rosetti, a former referee who officiated the Euro 2008 final, met with IFAB technical director David Elleray as part of efforts to bring greater consistency across Europe’s top competitions.
“We realise that everywhere now there is not any satisfaction about how VAR is impacting football,” Rosetti said. “So we want to avoid microscopic situations. The context is super important. It’s football, not PlayStation. We need to be very, very careful. The referee must referee the match.”
Handball remains the most contentious area, with significant variation in how leagues apply the law. The Premier League operated with the most relaxed interpretation last season, recording a handball penalty every 17.27 games. The Bundesliga followed at one every 10.93 games, La Liga at 10.56, Serie A at 10.00, and Ligue 1 at 9.27. The Champions League sat at the opposite extreme, awarding a handball penalty every seven games — the highest frequency across Europe.
Rosetti acknowledged that achieving a consistent approach across leagues would be difficult, given that competitions tend to develop their own interpretations of certain offences. UEFA has uploaded video examples of handball situations to its Clear Line platform in an attempt to clarify what constitutes an offence. “The perception about handball in England is different,” Rosetti said. “Football is not perfect, and sometimes we will continue to have similar situations interpreted in different ways. But at least we are working together.”
The gulf between the Champions League and the Premier League on VAR usage underlines just how far apart European football’s major competitions remain. Rosetti’s message was clear — the goal is greater consistency in the application of the laws, even if the path to getting there is far from straightforward.
Image credit: BBC Sport / BBC Sport
