VAR Controversies! UEFA Seeking Consistency Across European Leagues

UEFA is set to bring together the Premier League and other European top divisions this summer in an effort to find common ground on VAR.

According to the Press Association, there is a determination within UEFA to reach an alignment on how the VAR protocol is interpreted, and that efforts to find a more unified approach for next season will be discussed after this summer’s World Cup.

UEFA’s referees chief Roberto Rosetti said last month at a briefing in Brussels that VAR was in danger of straying away from its original mission of correcting clear and obvious mistakes and becoming too “microscopic.”

The LED screen inside the stadium displays the VAR message ‘Potential Penalty Check’. (Photo by Michael Regan/Getty Images)

“I believe we need to, at the end of the season, speak about this, because we cannot go in this direction of microscopic VAR intervention,” Rosetti said.

“We love football like it is.”

Speaking about one example where there were different interpretations — handball — Rosetti added: “I believe that in Europe, we must speak only one technical language. For us, this is the target. We cannot speak different technical languages across Europe. It’s not good.

“We need only one technical interpretation. We are speaking a lot. We were speaking a lot before the season — we need to speak again.”

As of Feb. 13, the Premier League compared favourably to the Champions League on the average number of on-field reviews per game — 0.15 this season compared to 0.36 in the premier European competition.