In the 2023/24 season 239 more games will use VAR in the UEFA Champions League, the UEFA Europa League and the UEFA Europa Conference League.
In the Champions League there will be a VAR throughout the qualifying phase, last season it started in the third round
UEFA continues to make progress in implementing VAR in all European competitions. The next step has already begun.
VAR was introduced in Iceland in the recent preliminary round and will now be coordinated across Europe for the forthcoming first and second qualifying round matches.. These new measures represent a Increase of 63 games compared to the 2022/23 season, in which this technology was introduced from the third qualifying round. Although the VAR was expected to put the controversies aside, over the past few years we have been able to confirm that this has not been the case.
The VAR in the Europa League goes to the third qualifying round and in the Conference League the video arbitration system will be implemented in the play-offs of the third European competition. That means the VAR will increase in 36 games in the Europa League and 140 games in the Conference League.
Looking ahead to the 2024-2025 season, UEFA intends to introduce VAR from the first qualifying round of the UEFA Europa League. While the Conference League might be expected to start rolling out sooner, it all comes at the expense of the economic costs that may be involved given the large number of games that would need to be played at such a high cost. UEFA has played a total of 1,648 VAR matches across all club and national team competitions.
