UEFA’s Roberto Rosetti criticizes VAR reviews as unconnected to football

Roberto Rosetti, UEFA’s managing director for refereeing, went public with a blunt assessment of VAR technology that plenty of fans have been muttering into their scarves for years: the system designed to fix clear mistakes has turned into something else entirely.

Speaking at the UEFA Congress on February 13, Rosetti said some video assistant referee reviews “were not connected with football.” The statement, coming from the person who oversees officiating across all 55 European football associations, carries considerably more weight than a frustrated post-match rant from a losing manager.

The forensic creep

Rosetti’s core complaint centers on what might be called mission drift. VAR was introduced with a simple mandate: correct clear and obvious errors. Instead, Rosetti argues, VAR has evolved into something resembling a crime scene investigation. Slow-motion replays dissect incidents frame by frame, turning marginal handballs and soft contact into multi-minute forensic examinations.

Consider what happens during a typical contested handball call. The ball strikes a defender’s arm. Was the arm in a “natural” position? Was the player’s movement toward the ball or away from it? Did the arm make the body “unnaturally bigger”? These questions, debated in real-time by officials staring at monitors while players stand around and stadium energy drains away, are exactly the kind of subjective rabbit holes Rosetti wants to seal shut.

UEFA draws the line

Rosetti’s February speech wasn’t just venting. It marked the beginning of a coordinated effort to rein in VAR’s scope across European football.

By February 16, UEFA had published Rosetti’s priorities for VAR implementation going forward, reinforcing that the technology’s primary purpose remains the correction of clear and obvious errors. Nothing more, nothing less.

By July 2026, all 55 UEFA member associations had agreed on guidelines that explicitly limit VAR reviews to clear and obvious mistakes, establishing a unified protocol ahead of the 2026/27 football season.

Rosetti has been careful to frame this not as an anti-technology stance but as a recalibration. Technology should aid referees, he argues, not replace their judgment. The on-field official who has the context of the full match, the physical positions of players, and the flow of play should remain the primary decision-maker. VAR exists as a safety net, not a replacement brain.

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