If you want a trail to be blazed, you need a willing volunteer to strike the first blow. In the case of VAR in football, the trailblazer is the unlikely source of Norway. There are 32 clubs in the Eliteserien, Norway’s top tier, and the Second Division, and in January 2025, 19 of them voted to scrap the use of VAR – enough for a majority verdict.
And so video officiating has been banished in the Scandinavian country, although a motion to accelerate that through for the 2025 season failed – instead, a separate bill of ‘as soon as possible’ has been passed.
Unless there’s a major sea-change in mindset after the return of ‘traditional’ refereeing, VAR will never be used on Norwegian soil again. Now that the trailblazer has initiated their action, will that give any other major competitions – such as the English Premier League – the courage to follow suit?
Premier League to Keep VAR… For Now
At the end of the 2023/24 season, Premier League clubs were given the opportunity to vote on the future of VAR. The Wolves were the most outspoken critic. They had been hit hard by some questionable decision from the video officials, and were keen to press upon their Premier League colleagues the damage that VAR was doing to the beautiful game – an ‘erosion of trust’ being their chief argument. They submitted a resolution to the Premier League’s AGM in June 2024 for VAR to be scrapped. Their statement asserted:
After five seasons of VAR in the Premier League, it is time for a constructive and critical debate on its future. Our position is that the price we are paying for a small increase in accuracy is at odds with the spirit of our game, and as a result we should remove it from the 2024-25 season onward.
Their bid certainly had the support of the fans, with a whopping nine out of ten Premier League viewers voting in a YouGov poll for VAR’s operation to be amended or scrapped entirely.
As for the vote at the Premier League AGM, 14 or more of the 20 member clubs would need to give the thumbs down to VAR in order for discussions about it being scrapped to be opened up to the floor. It turned out that Wolves’ appetite for the removal of video officiating was not matched by their peers – in fact, 19 out of 20 clubs voted to keep the technology in place. So, it’s unlikely that VAR will be scrapped in the Premier League any time soon.
English Football League Still Doesn’t Use VAR
The English Football League (EFL), meanwhile, has so far resisted the urge to implement VAR – there’s the financial burden of running the technology that would be prohibitive to some League Two clubs in particular. But even so, the EFL is thought to be considering the introduction of VAR – but in a way more akin to cricket or tennis.
Football Video Support is essentially VAR lite, allowing managers to challenge an on-field decision by sending it for a video review. Each team gets two unsuccessful challenges per game. The system was first used at the Women’s Under-17s World Cup in October, although it would be fair to say that Football Video Support – like VAR – did not prove universally popular.
The European View of VAR
Generally, European football has proven tolerant of VAR, albeit not without a few dissenting voices.
France
In France, Ligue 1 side Brest ‘did a Wolves’ in January 2024 by passing a resolution for VAR to be scrapped. Brest head coach, Kevin Roy, stated:
Technology puts a lot of pressure on referees. From now on, matches are managed by VAR which can, according to the rules in force, influence the result of a match.
It remains subject to the same problems of interpretation and subjectivity as before.
The matter was discussed by the top brass in Ligue 1 and French football, however, no further action was taken and so no vote was pursued.
Italy
Over in Italy, no single club has called for VAR to be scrapped publicly. However, so concerned are the Italian authorities over the health and wellbeing of their referees and match officials in the wake of fan fury, they did discuss temporarily halting the use of video technology during the final weeks of the 2023/24 season. However, nothing came of it and VAR is still used in all its glory in Serie A.
Spain
In Spain, VAR hit the headlines for all the wrong reasons in January 2024 after the audio from the video officiating booth was leaked to the press – and the police called in – following Real Madrid’s comeback win over Almeria. Three moments of controversy – a penalty given in Real’s favour, a goal given despite Vinicius Junior appearing to handle the ball and a disallowed goal for Almeria – came after VAR intervention, with most feeling that the Spanish champions had been on the right side of a series of questionable decisions. Almeria midfielder, Gonzalo Melero, commented afterwards:
The feeling is we’ve been robbed today, that’s clear. The penalty, the handball, which is an interpretation and can be given but can never be a VAR decision. Today has surpassed all limits.
Germany
Although that was far from an isolated incident as far as VAR-plagued games are concerned, so far La Liga and the Spanish football federation haven’t even considered the possibility of scrapping video technology. In Germany, there is support for VAR – as well as an acceptance that the technology needs to be implemented in a more fan-friendly way. In a trial that took place over the final weekend of January 2025, all VAR decisions taken in German Bundesliga and Bundesliga.2 games were explained, in real time, to supporters over the stadium’s P.A. system.
The Jury Is Still Out

A lack of communication is just one of the major gripes that fans and viewers have of VAR, so perhaps this system of live updates represents the future for the technology? Because one thing that is for sure – unanimously in world football – is that the jury is very much out still on the use of Video Assistant Refereeing.