Thread by @DaleJohnsonESPN

Euro 2020 is done and dusted, which is the proper time for a VAR thread to assess how it was operated.

Even so, you have to remember Euro 2020 is basically just 5 rounds of domestic league action (51 games).

For that reason, you can only really make summary judgements.

1. The refereeing was so much better

It certainly was, though of course it should be at a major tournament that is officiated by all the best referees from across Europe.

But this isn't only down to the referees, it's also down to head of refs, Roberto Rossetti.

While the Laws of the Game set the framework, the actual application of the laws still comes down to guidelines issued.

It's clear Rossetti's refereeing guidelines for Euro 2020 were to allow games to flow, that refs should ignore players trying to "win" decisions.

The style of refereeing is clearly shown in fouls and cards.

At Euro 2016 the average fouls per game was 25.20, and for Euro 2020 it was lower at 23.34.

Yellow cards dropped by 25%, to 149 from 201.

But penalties were up from 12 to 17 through the influence of VAR.

It's unlikely the Premier League, Bundesliga, La Liga etc will instruct referees to officiate exactly along the same lines as Euro 2020.

The leagues will have their own guidelines issued to referees about how it wants the Laws to be applied in specific case.

2. VAR was used far less at Euro 2020

Actually untrue, the frequency of overturns at Euro 2020 was higher than in domestic leagues last season.

For instance, it was one every 2.83 games at Euro 2020, while the Premier League last season was every 2.97 games.

3. VAR was far less fussy at Euro 2020

Rossetti is of the opinion that the VAR should only get involved when a decision is wrong beyond all doubt. No interventions on a subjective call.

A referee didn't ONCE have a subjective *given* decision overturned at Euro 2020.

Of the 18 VAR interventions at Euro 2020:

- 6 led to the award of a penalty
- 9 involved offside
- 2 red cards
- 1 disallowed for handball

In each pen / red card / handball case, the referee played on and judged no offence.

However, that of course doesn't mean a decision was right in the eyes of UEFA.

But UEFA's VAR guidelines say that a penalty should only be overturned if there has clearly been no contact between the players or (depending on the specific case) the ball is played.

UEFA prefers to act retrospectively in these cases.

Antonio Mateu Lahoz, who gave France a dubious penalty against Portugal, didn't referee another game after that.

The same fate befell Clement Turpin of France after the pen he gave to Russia vs. Denmark.

4. Why can't offside be as quick as at Euro 2020?

Quite simply, UEFA had a dedicated offside VAR. It's very difficult, simply on resources (people), for a domestic league to do this.

That is especially true now we are on a normal calendar with games played concurrently.

There are 28 assistants in the Select Group 1, who officiate in the Premier League.

But they also need to take games in the Championship, so making 10 appointments across each weekend would stretch resources to the limit.

They could also use Select Group 2 for the VAR role.

VAR offside should improve this season in PL.

It won't be as quick, as lead VAR also must check attacking phase, but PL method will be along the lines of Euro 2020.

There WILL be far fewer goals disallowed by offside by the VAR. But you will still get decisions this close.

5. VAR is more consistent at Euro 2020

A lot were quick to jump on this early in the tournament, before we'd even had the equivalent of one full round of Premier League games.

Simple fact: Inconsistencies appear with larger sample sizes, and not a handful of games.

We were certainly starting to see perceived inconsistencies appear as the games moved forward.

You simply cannot avoid this, because referees aren't robots and they all have their own individual subjective judgement.

Only one of these (Wales vs. Italy) was a red card.

6. VAR enjoyed a different perception

For obvious reasons, the default position was to say everything is better than Premier League VAR. And that wouldn't be difficult after the last two months of the season.

But there are key reasons why the perception is different.

Primarily, it's because there isn't the same emotional attachment from a huge group of fans (for the team or rivals) to every incident in one media market.

Added to that, the rolling nature of tournament games means one decision is unlikely to take the narrative for long.

That changed in the latter stages, for sure with the decision to give England a penalty against Denmark.

By then we were down to a game a day, and the stakes/rivalry was more intense. But was it any more controversial in itself than the France penalty vs Portugal?

The way Rossetti likes VAR to run, with a light touch on subjective calls, certainly has its merits.

I'm not sure how well it would be received in the Premier League, on some of these calls the accusation would be that the VAR had "missed it".

Getting the balance right on subjective calls, or the intervention point for "clear and obvious," is one of the biggest challenges in every league.

Managing expectations is the only way to do this effectively, and is certainly one area where the Premier League fails miserably.

UEFA's method of operating VAR "behind a curtain," so fans only ever see what they VAR is looking at AFTER a decision has been made, would be a tough sell in domestic football.

Sometimes the offside decision, or penalty VAR output, comes several minutes later.

There's absolutely no doubt that the Premier League made a huge error showing fans the offside process for two seasons, it was a farce that no supporter could be expected to understand.

But the explanation for a decision needs to be much quicker than at Euro 2020.

Finally, this is the full breakdown of all VAR decisions at Euro 2020. espn.co.uk/football/uefa-…