VAR is in the spotlight yet again with Barcelona having been left furious by a decision to disallow Pau Cubarsi’s goal against Atletico Madrid on Thursday in the Copa del Rey.
The players had to wait eight
minutes for a decision to be made by VAR, and the final result was still controversial with Hansi Flick and Frenkie de Jong arguing there was no offside.
UEFA referees’ chief Roberto Rosetti has been talking about the technology and says football must avoid VAR becoming too forensic.
“About the VAR intervention, I can tell you this: I believe that we forgot the reason why VAR was introduced. We forgot a little bit. Everywhere. You remember, eight years ago, I came to London. We discussed the ‘what VAR stands for’. We spoke about clear mistakes,” he told the UEFA congress.
“Why we spoke about clear and obvious mistakes. Because technology works so well in factual decisions. 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.
“I believe that we need to, at the end of the season, again in our meetings, to speak about this. We cannot go in this direction of microscopic VAR intervention. We love football like it is.”
VAR decisions have come in for criticism across Europe this season, with interim president Rafa Yuste saying the club are going to “demand explanations” for the long delay in last night’s match.
