UEFA refereeing chief warn VAR is becoming too ‘microscopic’

UEFA’s managing director for refereeing has warned football is in danger of drifting into overly forensic VAR use, with the technology moving beyond its original purpose of correcting clear and obvious mistakes.Roberto Rosetti said he is concerned that subjective decisions are being re-refereed through repeated slow-motion checks, creating outcomes that feel disconnected from the way incidents look in real time. He said the issue will be on the agenda for UEFA’s end-of-season meetings.Rosetti said: “I believe we forgot the reason why VAR was introduced. We forgot a little bit. Everywhere. You remember, eight years ago, I came to London and we discussed what VAR stands for. We spoke about clear mistakes, because technology works so well in factual decisions. In objective decisions, it is fantastic.“Subjective evaluation is more difficult. That’s why we started to speak about clear and obvious mistakes – clear evidence. I believe that we need to speak about this again in our meetings at the end of the season. We cannot go in this direction of microscopic VAR intervention. We love football like it is.”Rosetti also raised concerns about the impact of super slow-motion replays on decision-making, suggesting they can make routine football contact look worse than it is at full speed. He added: “When you are watching a situation with a super slow motion, you can find a lot of things,” he said, describing the process as similar to ‘moviola’, an old film-editing technique.His intervention comes as VAR continues to generate debate across Europe, with supporters and clubs frustrated by long delays, tight offside decisions and interventions on marginal contact. Rosetti’s comments are aimed less at the existence of technology than at its application – particularly where it shifts from factual calls into interpretation.Rosetti also pointed to the wider ecosystem around refereeing decisions, arguing that external pressure has helped push expectations towards more intervention. He said: “You are guilty in some way, because also you pushed for more interventions. ‘Where is VAR? Why doesn’t VAR intervene? Why is VAR not involved? What are the VARs doing?’ But now we need to be careful about that.”The warning also lands amid discussions about expanding VAR’s remit. Lawmakers have recently explored whether VAR should be able to intervene on decisions such as corners or wrongly issued second yellow cards, which would increase the number of match situations the system can touch.Rosetti’s position is that any evolution must avoid slowing the game down or turning every incident into a frame-by-frame exercise, with UEFA expected to revisit guidance and interpretation across its competitions before next season.