The 17 laws of football ought to mean every fixture is refereed in the same way — the same indiscretions leading to the same punishments, no matter where a game is played.
There are, however, marked differences in how two of the most-watched competitions in the world are officiated. The Champions League returns tonight for its last-16 phase and again, it will not be quite the same as the Premier League, with more frequent interventions and more penalties.
The Athletic looks at how elite referees approach the two competitions differently.
Handball
The statistics are clear. More than twice as many penalties are given for handball offences in the Champions League as in the Premier League.
The reason? The cloudy notion of interpretation.
UEFA’s refereeing chief Roberto Rosetti has spoken in the last month of his aims to “reinforce a unified interpretation” of the handball law across Europe. “We cannot speak different technical languages across Europe, it is not good,” he said at UEFA’s Congress on February 12.
That was an acceptance that referees in domestic leagues, including the Premier League, do not share the same approach as UEFA does in the Champions League. Instructions are delivered to officials on what constitutes a handball and there are subtle differences.
The Premier League’s interpretation is effectively shaped by its stakeholders, with clubs asked to give feedback to PGMOL, the refereeing body, each season. A more lenient approach has been adopted in recent years to limit the number of penalties, following a series of subjective handball decisions. For this campaign, the Premier League said it was an approach backed by 78 per cent of stakeholders during its annual consultation. The ball striking a hand or arm does not automatically bring a penalty unless deemed deliberate.
That refined approach has seen incidents, such as Manchester City’s Mateus Nunes (below) handling in the box during their win at Leeds United last month, not leading to penalties.
Would that same moment have led to a spot kick being given in the Champions League? A question that cannot be answered categorically but it would have been more probable.
Evidence from the Champions League play-off rounds certainly suggests so. For example, there was the penalty given, after a VAR review, when the ball struck Club Brugge’s Joaquin Seys, despite the defender having his back turned in their game against Atletico Madrid. UEFA described Seys’ right arm as being in “an unnatural position and away from the body”.
The same language was used when penalising Olympiacos midfielder Christos Mouzakitis in their Champions League tie at Ajax in matchweek eight. Again, it was the VAR overturning the original decision of no penalty as the player blocked a shot.
Rosetti’s latest guidance, shared on UEFA’s website ahead of the play-off rounds commencing, said referees were instructed to consider a player’s “attitude and intention”, whether arms were in a natural position and unavoidable deflections.
The UEFA view of penalties for handball is more closely aligned with the approaches seen in Spain and Italy and ensures there have already, according to Opta, been more given in the Champions League (22) this season than in the Premier League (19).
That said, there has still been a significant spike in Premier League handball penalties, too. Having seen just nine awarded in 380 games across 2024-25, there have already been 19 given in this campaign.
VAR intervention
Followers of the Premier League can point to the many imperfections of the VAR system since its introduction in 2019 but the technology is more common on Champions League nights.
According to data obtained by The Athletic, the Champions League is averaging 0.45 VAR reviews per game this season, while the Premier League has only 0.27. There is an on-field review every 2.5 games in the Champions League, meanwhile, with the Premier League running at almost one every seven games.
Howard Webb, the Premier League’s chief refereeing officer, has routinely called on his officials to only intervene for “clear and obvious” errors, an approach that has its own grey area but one that encourages VARs not to step in unless there has been a certain mistake.
Webb has previously accepted mistakes in the decision-making process but the same goes for Rosetti, who has lamented a shift towards “microscopic” interventions. The Italian liked it to the Moviola, a 1920s film editing machine. “With the super-slow motion, you can find a lot of things,” he said.
The VAR system is a source of constant consternation in the Premier League (Glyn Kirk/AFP via Getty Images)
Officials have strayed from UEFA’s original remit, “forgetting” why VARs had been introduced. Clear evidence ought to be required, he said, an inference that UEFA competitions were using VAR incorrectly and too frequently.
“We need to, at the end of the season, again in our meetings, to speak about this,” he said at UEFA Congress. “We cannot go in this direction of microscopic VAR intervention. We love football like it is.”
Another subtle difference in the use of the VAR system in the Premier League is the five-centimetre grace given to an attacker when measuring for offside using semi-automated technology. The Champions League does not account for that.
Threshold for fouls
It is a viewpoint as old as European competitions; you get away with more in English football.
And it remains a truism. The Premier League considers itself a more physical competition, allowing greater contact between players. The Champions League does not have the same leniency, operating with a different threshold for fouls.
Take Lloyd Kelly’s dismissal for Juventus in their play-off tie with Galatasaray. His challenge was upgraded from an initial second yellow card after the defender landed on the back of Baris Yilmaz’s calf with the bottom of his foot, seemingly accidentally, meaning a two-match ban for a straight red. UEFA described that as “strong unfair contact… clearly endangering the safety of his opponent”.
That came a month after Burnley defender Kyle Walker had appeared to stamp on Manchester United’s Patrick Dorgu during a Premier League fixture at Turf Moor in January, with no action taken either by the on-field referee or the VAR.
The statistics, although markedly different, underline that difference. Again, taking Opta’s number, there has been an average of 21.7 fouls conceded per game in the Premier League this season, versus an average of 22.3 in the Champions League. With interpretations of the handball clearly playing a part, there are also 0.4 penalties conceded in an average Champions League tie, as opposed to 0.3 in the Premier League.
Marginally more yellow cards have been shown in the Premier League this season but the greater scope for unpunished physicality has had consequences. The goalmouth scrums, often seen in Premier League games since the turn of the year, have not been replicated so noticeably in the Champions League.
