UEFA's top referees’ chief has urged officials to use pitch-side monitors instead of relying on VAR for big decisions as the Premier League endured another huge day of controversy. Roberto Rosetti wants to see his officials in the Champions League make the decisions and not 'a man in another place or city'. The Italian also admitted VARs must improve on selecting which camera angles to review following the huge error at St James' Park when Fabian Schar's handball was missed in the build-up to his equalizer for Newcastle against Watford only for broadcasters to spot the mistake later. Premier League referees are encouraged not to use the monitors in an attempt to avoid even more tedious delays although it has led to key incidents being missed such as Leicester midfielder Youri Tielemans' lunging tackle on Callum Wilson.
'We think referees must be at the centre of the decision-making process - not the VAR,' Rosetti told the Mail on Sunday. 'I was a referee for 27 years. I want to be the person in charge of what happens on the field. That means I want to see what happened with my own eyes and then I can continue the match. I can explain to the players what has happened and I want to be at the centre of the decision. I want to see the referees take the decision. I understand we need to work to improve and reduce the time of reviews but the priority is for accuracy of decisions. I prefer a referee to watch the situation with his own eyes instead of by a man who we don't know where he is, maybe in another place or another city!' Referees in the Champions League will use the monitors for all subjective decisions like penalties and red-card offences which will leave the Premier League's top officials like Michael Oliver and Anthony Taylor in the strange position of using the pitch-side screens in one competition but not the other. Mike Riley, head of the Premier League officials, last week owned up to four VAR mistakes in the opening four weeks of the season. Man City should have had a penalty when David Silva was fouled against Bournemouth, as should West Ham for a challenge on Sebastian Haller versus Norwich. Riley admitted Tielemans should have been sent off for a stamp on Wilson. None was given due to PGMOL's insistence on maintaining their high bar for what constitutes a clear and obvious error while Schar's handball was not spotted because VAR Craig Pawson did not view the crucial angle during his review.
Rosetti, who was at the forefront of introducing VAR to Serie A and UEFA competitions, has been impressed with its implementation in the Premier League despite the early backlash. 'The Premier League and its referees are doing a good job,' he said. 'It is a young project. It needs time to be efficient, to be fast and to be the best. We need patience. The main reaction in Italy was positive because it something that related to justice, to do something good for football and to avoid mistakes. VAR cannot delete them all. There will be always discussions, always controversial situations. We cannot forget that behind the technology are human beings. These guys did their jobs on the field of play for 15-20 years and are now doing something different in front of a monitor. They need time and experience. They need to improve their skills to select the best cameras.' Rosetti believes technology will advance so much in the future that offside decisions become automatic like goal-line technology or foot faults in tennis. The Mail on Sunday revealed earlier this season that the 50 frames per second broadcast cameras used by the Premier League can have a margin of error of up to 14 inches. 'VAR is a necessary tool for modern football,' said Rosetti. 'There is no turning back now. We are using the current best technology. Of course, it is improving and probably soon we will have something more accurate, more precise. This is something the companies are working on. In three to five years it will be different. My wish for the future is to have something like automatic offside, something that can be 100 per cent accurate like goal-line technology.'
