Overview
- UEFA issued formal guidance on Tuesday saying VAR should only intervene for decisions that are clearly and obviously wrong or for incidents the referee completely missed.
- The guidance follows a meeting of referee chiefs from all 55 European associations with IFAB and aims to stop VAR from effectively re-refereeing matches.
- IFAB has clarified that the mistaken-identity protocol cannot be used to judge simulation for now and that VAR can only be used to identify which player received a caution, not to change the nature of the offence.
- Meeting participants gave unanimous backing to measures to speed restarts, including time limits for substitutions and five-second countdowns for goal kicks and throw-ins.
- UEFA said it will not adopt some optional World Cup practices seen this summer, such as red cards for players covering their mouths or VAR checks on corners, and leagues have been told to implement the new limits.