VAR: Uefa referees' chief Roberto Rosetti says some reviews 'not connected to football'

Uefa referees' chief Roberto Rosetti says some video assistant referee reviews "were not connected with football" after meeting with leaders from the top European leagues last month.

Rosetti was speaking as he launched Clear Line, a first-of-its-kind portal for fans which tries to lay out when a VAR should, and should not, intervene.

The lead referee officers from England, Spain, Germany, France and Italy met with Rosetti and David Elleray, the Ifab's technical director, to try to find a more uniform approach to decisions.

"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. It's something important for football, for clear situations and clear mistakes."

• Too many reviews - Rosetti

Image source: Getty Images
Image caption: Roberto Rosetti is a former referee who officiated the Euro 2008 final

Rosetti conceded that trying to find a consistent approach across all leagues, which tend to have their own interpretations of some offences, would be difficult.

In particular, handball continues to cause issues across football.

The Premier League had the most relaxed interpretation of handball last season, with a handball penalty every 17.27 games.

Then came the German Bundesliga at 10.93 games per handball penalty, the Spanish La Liga on 10.56, the Italian Serie A on 10.00 and the French Ligue 1 at 9.27.

In the Champions League, it was a penalty every seven games - the highest frequency in Europe - which highlights the difficulty in reaching a consensus across competitions.

On Clear Line, Uefa has uploaded many video examples of handball situations to explain what is considered an offence.

"The idea is to be more consistent in the application of the laws," Rosetti said

"The perception about handball in England is different. Football is not perfect, and sometimes we will continue to have similar situations interpreted in different ways. But at least we are working together."

With VAR, too, the Champions League and the Premier League are worlds apart.

In the 2025-26 campaign, the Premier League had the lowest intervention rate in Europe at 0.29 per game, while the Champions League was 0.47 per game.

Rosetti said that there were "too many reviews" and more interventions were affecting player behaviour, with attempts to play for or earn video decisions.

"We wanted to come back to the origin of VAR," Rosetti said, referencing incidents like Diego Maradona's 'Hand of God' goal for Argentina against England at the 1986 World Cup.

"We are not happy any more about this kind of use of VAR.

"We want to try to come back a little bit, and to put the referees again at the centre."

• 'It's about normal speed, context'

Rosetti said that the time being taken over VAR reviews was a particular concern, with lengthy reviews featuring multiple TV replays being less acceptable to supporters.

Any check longer than 90 seconds, Rosetti says, risks "losing credibility".

A new collective protocol was agreed whereby, when at the monitor, a referee would be shown a freeze-frame for point of contact, followed by half-speed, and then full speed for the intensity of the challenge.

"We like referees with personality, taking decisions on the pitch, and VAR intervening only for clear and obvious situations," the Italian said.

"So clear images without too many replays. It is something that for us is very important.

"We were seeing that some on-field reviews were not connected with football. It's about normal speed, context. It's about football."

Rosetti described Clear Line as "a guide for all the people of football" and not for officials.

It goes through each area the VAR covers - penalties, red card, attacking offences, factual decisions and mistaken identity - in great detail with video examples.

"We started to think how we could help everyone to understand VAR better," he said.

"It's a library, a structure, a document where we explain when [and] how VAR will intervene.

"This is not a web page for referees. This is the space that we would you to go to after a Champions League match to check how an incident compares with this library.

"It's for the clubs, for the players, for the fans."