Roberto Rosetti, UEFA refereeing director, on referee mistakes: “We cannot go in this direction of microscopic VAR intervention”

Finally, somebody said it. Roberto Rosetti, a senior UEFA official, has at long last spoken out against the way VAR is currently used in football, calling the thresholds “microscopic” and admitting that “we forgot the reason why VAR was introduced”.

Across the past few years, Video Assistant Refereeing has been rapidly implemented across professional football, both men’s and women’s, yet the way it has been used and relied upon has led many to think that it is now doing more harm than good to the game, and not fulfilling its original purpose.

For starters, fans inside the stadium are regularly left in the dark as to what is going on during a stoppage, with announcements not made consistently during review processes to keep them up to date.

Added to the poor transparency for match goers, who are often the last to benefit to changes to the game, the system is now being used to highlight any contact at all between players to call fouls. What began as a measure against diving has now given attacking players the opportunity to play for the slightest contact, knowing that the implementation of the rules will usually allow for a foul to be given.

“I believe we forgot the reason why VAR was introduced”

Handballs are suffering from the same symptoms. Now, the slightest contact with a player’s arm or hand results in, almost without fail, a foul being given. Nuance, body position, and intent are more often than not removed from the equation when referees are forced to make a call, and that’s not to mention the inconsistency regarding the subjective judgement placed on specific decisions from the refereeing teams in matches.

“I believe we forgot the reason why VAR was introduced‚” UEFA’s refereeing director Roberto Rosetti said as he outlined the mid-season guidelines. “We forgot a little bit. Everywhere. You remember, eight years ago, I came to London (to brief journalists). We discussed ‘what VAR stands for’.

“We spoke about clear mistakes. Why we spoke about clear and obvious mistakes. Technology works so well in factual decisions. For interpretations, subjective evaluation is more difficult." This is particularly clear when looking at offside, a somewhat uniquely black or white decision in football: the player is either onside or offside, with no in-between. In these cases, VAR generally works well.

“I believe that we need, at the end of the season in our meetings, to speak about this,” Rosetti admitted before warning that "we cannot go in this direction of microscopic VAR intervention. We love football like it is. When you are watching (a) situation with a super slow motion, you can find a lot of things.”

“We must speak only one technical language (on handball),” he said. “We were speaking a lot for sure before the season, we need to speak again (and have) only one uniform and consistent interpretation. We are working for this.”

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Of course, this is just one voice in Europe’s governing body; as nice as they are to hear, Rosetti’s words do not mark incoming change, even if they are a breath of fresh air.

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