Uefa is preparing to loosen the leash on VAR. According to a report by ONE, the governing body and all 55 of its member associations have agreed to a package of refereeing reforms for the 2026/27 season that will restrict video review to "clear and obvious errors" and hand more trust back to referees on the pitch.

The plan, as described by ONE, instructs video assistants to intervene only when the on-field referee has clearly missed a serious incident or made an obvious mistake — not to re-examine marginal or subjective calls that were reasonable in real time. Reviews themselves are also meant to be shortened, on the logic that a long, drawn-out check is itself a sign the original decision was not a clear error to begin with.

ONE reports the reforms are due to apply across all of Uefa's domestic and international competitions from next season, with referees expected to apply the criteria consistently across the Champions League, Europa League, Conference League and national-team fixtures alike.

The push lines up with public comments in recent months from Roberto Rosetti, Uefa's director of refereeing, who has repeatedly warned that VAR has drifted from its original purpose. "We forgot the reason why VAR was introduced. We forgot a little bit. Everywhere," Rosetti has said, arguing that technology works well for factual calls like offside but becomes counterproductive when used to second-guess subjective judgment calls.

Rosetti has also cautioned against what he called "microscopic VAR intervention" — video officials picking apart incidents frame by frame in search of fouls or handballs that would never have been given without the benefit of slow-motion replay, frustrating supporters who feel matches are being re-refereed from the video room.

ONE ties the reform effort to fallout from this summer's World Cup, citing a disallowed goal for Iran and a VAR-awarded penalty for Belgium among the flashpoints that intensified scrutiny of how intrusive video review has become at the top level of the game.

Beyond VAR itself, ONE reports the package includes measures aimed at increasing effective playing time — reformed procedures around goal kicks, throw-ins, substitutions and injury stoppages designed to cut down on time-wasting — plus an expanded captain-referee communication protocol modelled on the one trialled at Euro 2024, intended to reduce mass protests and improve dialogue on the pitch.

Uefa's own referee convention framework, which all 55 associations sign up to, already enshrines the principle that VAR should communicate replay information "only in relation to clear and obvious errors or serious missed incidents" — the standard ONE says will now be applied more strictly in practice from 2026/27.

Uefa has not yet published a formal statement detailing the full reform package, and it remains to be seen how the tighter threshold will be codified for match officials in day-to-day protocol documents. The broader direction, though, fits a governing body increasingly uneasy with how far video review has been allowed to reach into subjective refereeing calls.