UEFA President Aleksander Ceferin has admitted that he remains sceptical about VAR.
Alexander Čeferin (photo: S. Zinaya)- "We're used to VAR, although I still think some things don't work correctly. Firstly, no one knows for sure when it is a hand and when it is not. At the moment when the referee goes to watch VAR, I get the impression that every time the ball touches the player's hand, a penalty is awarded. And according to the Rules, this should not be the case. Secondly, when it comes to offside, as a lawyer, I believe that every rule should make sense. Does it make sense for you to be offside if your nose or shoe size is bigger? I think there needs to be a bit of clarity on what is a penalty or offside and what is not. VAR has helped a lot, but the line needs to be thicker.
I believe that the referees on the pitch should decide everything themselves. And sometimes referees interact too much with the VAR room instead of making decisions on their own. If the decisions of referees in ordinary courts depended solely on technology, we would suffer from a robot that would make decisions based on artificial intelligence. Football is something alive. We gathered 15 of the best coaches at one conference. Guardiola, Klopp, Mourinho, Ancelotti, all the greats. We showed them a moment with a possible violation and asked if there was a violation. Seven said yes, and eight said no. And we are talking about the biggest football experts in the world. Is it possible for fans to agree? Everyone will see what suits them. After all, players make mistakes too, so why not referees? Some people suggest punishing referees for making mistakes. I think it's useless. They can be punished if they did it on purpose or if it's corruption. But mistakes are part of football," he said in an interview with Infolibre.
