UEFA has launched a new public platform designed to clarify when the video assistant referee should intervene, as European football moves towards fewer reviews and greater authority for on-field officials from the 2026-27 season.
What It Means
VAR was introduced to correct major mistakes and serious incidents missed by match officials. Roberto Rosetti, UEFA’s managing director of refereeing, acknowledged the growing frustration surrounding video technology while outlining the project in an interview with BBC Sport. “So we want to avoid microscopic situations. The context is super important. It’s football, not PlayStation. We need to be very, very careful. However, UEFA believes its use has gradually expanded into the examination of marginal contact, isolated freeze-frames and incidents that appear markedly different when replayed in extreme slow motion. Clear Line will also attempt to reduce differences in interpretation between European competitions and domestic leagues. Handball remains a particular problem, with the same type of incident frequently producing different outcomes across England, Spain , Italy, Germany, France and UEFA tournaments.
“We realise that everywhere now there is not any satisfaction about how VAR is impacting football,” Rosetti said. The governing body’s official position is that VAR should correct “clear and obvious errors or serious missed incidents in match-changing situations”. Rosetti said the intention was to return video technology to that original purpose, with officials encouraged to make authoritative decisions on the field and VAR restricted to situations supported by clear evidence. “The referee must referee the match,” he said, adding that some recent on-field reviews had been “not connected with football”. “The idea is to be more consistent in the application of the laws,” Rosetti said, although he accepted that football would never achieve complete uniformity in subjective decisions.
