Football must fix refereeing problems even if it means ditching VAR

One regular weekend of refereeing — that's all supporters ask for, yet it feels out of reach. The FA Cup fourth round showed that removing VAR does not remove controversy: the first half of Aston Villa-Newcastle made a case for technology on offside and penalty calls, and in Italy the Derby d'Italia suggested VAR would have prevented scenes that affected the Serie A title race.

Talk is already underway about IFAB changing the laws ahead of the 2026 World Cup, but opinion is divided. Roberto Rosetti said VAR was intended to correct "clear mistakes" and that "In objective decisions, it is fantastic," while warning that super-slow motion lets you "find a lot of things" and that arbitration of subjective incidents has become problematic.

Poor communication and inconsistency compound the problem.

var, refereeing, offside, penalty, fa cup, aston villa, newcastle, derby d'italia, serie a, ifab