Uefa calls leagues to summit over ‘microscopic’ VAR

Europe’s top leagues have been summoned to a meeting with Uefa in the summer to discuss how video assistant referee (VAR) technology is being used.

The summit of referee chiefs from the Premier League, La Liga, Serie A, the Bundesliga and Ligue 1 will discuss how to reset VAR to its intended interpretation of only intervening in the clearest of errors.

Roberto Rosetti – the head of Uefa’s referees – called the meeting after saying last month the game must not “go in this direction of microscopic VAR interventions”.

Uefa wants to discuss with leagues how they use VAR, and the thresholds applied.

“I believe that we forgot the reason why VAR was introduced,” Rosetti said.

“In objective decisions, it is fantastic. For interpretations, subjective evaluation is more difficult.

“That’s why we started to speak about clear and obvious mistakes – clear evidence.”

VAR is operated very differently across Europe.

The Premier League has the lowest VAR intervention rate this season – 0.275 per game – though that has not meant less controversy over decisions.

Figures released last month showed the Bundesliga and La Liga come next at 0.38 interventions per game, with Serie A at 0.44 and Ligue 1 at 0.47.

In the Champions League, interventions are at a rate of 0.45 per game.

Rosetti also wants all leagues to speak “only one technical language” after controversy over the inconsistent application of laws such as handball.