UEFA referees ready for season's challenges

Several notable innovations will help them in their duties. New rules aimed at enhancing football’s image are in place, and UEFA has discussed refereeing issues with UEFA Champions League teams and coaches in an initiative designed to foster mutual cooperation and understanding.

Moreover, ways of fine-tuning the video assistant referee (VAR) system continue to occupy the thoughts of European football's leaders following the dedicated two-day symposium back in April.

As the new season swings into action, UEFA’s director for refereeing Roberto Rosetti gives his key insights into interesting developments on the refereeing front.

UEFA’s refereeing vision is evolving constantly – for example, you’ve been meeting the teams taking part in the 2025/26 UEFA Champions League. What’s behind this new and worthwhile venture?

Roberto Rosetti: Representatives of the UEFA Referees Committee have visited the 36 clubs involved in the league phase of this season’s UEFA Champions League. It’s a ‘first’ for UEFA in this competition. We’ve been sharing information and knowledge, bearing in mind that new rules and guidelines are in force for the coming season. We’ve had fruitful talks with coaches and players; open discussions and useful exchanges about various topics and potential areas for improvement, and all of this will help to prevent potential issues on the pitch. We find that players who have been personally informed are less likely to complain during matches, which makes the job easier for the referees.

One interesting item that we’ve talked about has been an upgrade in communication and interaction between coaches and referee teams. For example, we agreed with the coaches to implement better cooperation between coaches and fourth officials. We want to create a climate of cooperation – the coaches have asked for this to happen – and we are more than ready to offer improved dialogue.

We’ve also provided technical material to the clubs taking part in the UEFA Europa League and UEFA Conference League – so this dialogue can definitely be seen as the start of something new.

Can you explain important new laws of the game and guidelines that have been implemented for this season?

Rosetti: One of the most significant developments in refereeing in the last 20 years is the new rule regarding cooperation between referees and team captains, which UEFA introduced for EURO 2024 and has now been written into the laws of the game by football’s lawmakers, the International Football Association Board [IFAB]. Under this protocol, only one player, usually the team captain, will be allowed to approach the referee respectfully to discuss incidents and decisions. The new guidelines are aimed primarily at preventing groups of players from surrounding or mobbing referees after decisions have been taken.

This new rule is important because it concerns football’s well-being – protecting the image of the game, as well as protecting referees. The objective is to create a legacy for the new generation of both players and referees, because we’re acutely aware that young people starting out in refereeing can be badly affected by insults or abuse. The rule is a great move for football. We want to eliminate mobbing and put an end to the ugly moments and bad gestures that can have a negative impact on matches.

Referee Joao Pinheiro speaks to Tottenham and Paris captains at the UEFA Super CupUEFA via Getty Images

Another significant change, designed to prevent time-wasting, is the so-called ‘eight-second rule’, where a goalkeeper can’t hold the ball for more than eight seconds before releasing it. Referees will raise their arm and visibly count down the final five seconds to warn the goalkeeper, and a goalkeeper holding the ball for more than eight seconds will be penalised. with a corner-kick being awarded to the opposing team.

We started to apply this rule in UEFA competitions recently, and the implementation of the new law has been excellent, it’s been managed in a very good way. Referees are speaking with goalkeepers to remind them of the law, and goalkeepers have already shown understanding for the spirit of the law.

The video assistant referee (VAR) system is now an established feature of top-level football. How do you view the current progress of VAR?

Rosetti: You can no longer separate VAR and refereeing. VAR is totally integrated within the game, and we’re working every day to bring about the consistent application of the system. We’ve studied various statistics and figures, and we can see that the application of VAR is becoming increasingly consistent. We’re extremely happy, and we want to increase the quality of the system even further. That said, it is important to stress that VAR does not referee the game. We want our referees to be strong on the pitch and brave enough to make decisions, only leaning on VAR when it is absolutely necessary.

Rosetti says VAR is now "totally integrated within the game"Getty Images

Have you identified any areas where the system can be fine-tuned?

Rosetti: One area that we’re looking at in this respect is the amount of time taken for a decision to be made in a VAR review. We fully understand that lengthy reviews are sometimes necessary and unavoidable for technical reasons – there may be multiple checks, multiple things to consider, multiple situations. UEFA is constantly briefing its video assistant referees, and one of the most important topics in our current discussions is to try and reduce the length of reviews wherever possible.

Europe’s referees have built up a positive reputation for their dedication and consistently high standards over the years. How do you evaluate their many qualities as the new club and international season kicks off?

Rosetti: The clear picture we have received is that European referees are without doubt the most reliable match officials in the world – we can indeed be very proud of them. We’ve had six major finals recently, and there were zero issues… no one was talking about the referees. They’re performing very well – and obviously not just in finals!

And what message are you giving referees for the new campaign?

Rosetti: The message is very clear: Keep your feet on the ground, start from the beginning again, stay focused and keep working hard because you never know what 'devil' may be hiding around the corner!