Uefa rejects VAR for Champions League as ‘nobody knows exactly how it works yet’
▶ Steve Luckings examines how Save Gaza wristbands, Black Power salutes and poppies are examples of political messages in play
Uefa will not introduce Video Assistant Referees (VAR) for next season’s Uefa Champions League because of ongoing “confusion” surrounding its use, Aleksander Ceferin, the president of European football’s governing body, said yesterday.
“Nobody knows exactly how it works yet. There is still a lot of confusion,” Ceferin said at Uefa’s Congress in the Slovakian capital Bratislava as he confirmed it would not be introduced for next season’s Champions League.
“I think there is no way back any more, but we have to educate the referees properly, [and] we have to explain to the fans when it can be used,” he said. “Fans keep seeing the [VAR] screen all the time. For me, it might be a good project but we shouldn’t rush it.”
VAR has been used this season in various club competitions, including in the German Bundesliga and Italy’s Serie A as well as at the Fifa Club World Cup in Abu Dhabi in December.
It also looks set to be used at the World Cup in Russia in June and July, with the International Football Association Board (Ifab) set to confirm that decision on Saturday as Fifa president Gianni Infantino reaffirmed his view yesterday that he expected it to be implemented.
But Ceferin said a lot of work still needs to be done to the system to make it a successful part of football going forward.
“I am not at all against it, but it needs to be better explained when it is being used. We will see at the World Cup,” Ceferin said.
“It could be a good project, useful for football, but we must not rush to take such decisions.”
VAR can only be used in four game-changing situations: after a goal, penalty decisions, after a straight red card or in cases of mistaken identity.
“We have to base decisions on facts and not feelings,” Infantino said of his thoughts on the system, despite some negativity towards it.
“The facts are that from almost 1,000 matches which were tested, the accuracy rate of the referees went up from 93 percent to 99 percent.
“If we, or I, can do something to make sure that the World Cup is not decided by a referee’s mistakes, then I think it’s our duty to do it.
“Much more time is wasted on throw-ins or free kicks, rather than on correcting a potentially wrong decision with VAR, so I’m still very positive.”
Infantino added that controversy was part and parcel of Serie A – with or without VAR.
“If you lose the match, before it was the fault of the referee, now it’s the fault of VAR... that’s part of the customs, of the traditions of Italian football as well,” he said.
VAR came in for criticism on Sunday from Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger, who felt despite the use of it decisions were still made that were wrong.
The Frenchman felt Vincent Kompany’s goal for Manchester City in their 3-0 victory in the League Cup final, should have been ruled out for offside.
The second goal is offside. I don’t know, we accepted the VAR, I just watched it again,” he said. “It’s a mystery for me how you can watch that on replay and not give offside.”
Following Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola defying the English football authorities again on Sunday, by wearing a yellow ribbon on his suit in support of jailed pro-independence Catalan politicians during his side’s 3-0 League Cup final victory over Arsenal at Wembley, we take a look at other political symbols used to protest in sport.
Wearing poppies
England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales were all fined by Fifa in November 2016 for ignoring warnings not to commemorate Armistice Day during their World Cup qualifiers by wearing poppies on their shirts.
The world governing body considered the poppy a political symbol, sparking widespread condemnation in Britain, with Prime Minister Theresa May calling it “utterly outrageous” in Parliament.
However after the rules were revised in September 2017, the four nations were allowed to display the red poppy on their shirts or black armbands to remember fallen service men and women killed in conflict.
Save Gaza wristband
England cricketer Moeen Ali was banned from wearing “Save Gaza” and “Free Palestine” wristbands in the remainder of the third Test against India in Southampton in July 2014 by the International Cricket Council.
The England & Wales Cricket Board had cleared Ali to wear the bands, arguing that he was making a humanitarian statement and not a political one.
The team also wore the logo of the Help for Heroes charity on their shirts on the Tuesday of that Test to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the outbreak of the First World War.
Statue of Liberty
The International Olympic Committee’s dubious helmets panel (they probably have one, right?) were kept extra busy during the recently concluded 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang.
South Korean women’s goaltender Shin So-jung was told she was not allowed to display an image of her late father on her helmet at the Games, while images of the Statue of Liberty were allowed on the helmets of two US goaltenders after a misunderstanding about whether they violated an Olympic ban on political symbols.
The IOC also stopped South Korean male hockey goalie Matt Dalton from wearing a mask with the image of Korean admiral Yi Sun-shin who inflicted defeats on Japan in a 16th century war.
Palestine flag
Scottish club Celtic were fined £8,616 (Dh44,381) in September 2016 by European football governing body Uefa after fans displayed an “illicit banner” during their Champions League qualifier against Hapoel Be’er Sheva.
Fans of Celtic flew Palestine flags before and during the match against the Israeli opposition at Parkhead on August 17 of that year, resulting in a charge from European football’s governing body.
Uefa views the flags as illicit banners under Article 16 of its disciplinary regulations and at a disciplinary hearing the complaint against the Scottish champions was upheld and the club were fined.
In response, supporters of Celtic, known as the Green Brigade, donated £176,000 to two Palestinian charities through crowdfunding initiatives.
Headscarves and hijabs
In July 2012, football’s rulesmaking panel approved headscarves for Muslim women players, reversing a ban on the Islamic hijab that was enforced in Fifa competitions for five years.
The laws of football prohibit equipment that is dangerous or makes religious statements and headscarves had been banned on the football field since 2007.
The move came after a campaign in favour of the hijab from Fifa vice-president and executive committee member Prince Ali Bin Al Hussein of Jordan.
In 2011, the Iran women’s football team were prevented from playing their 2012 Olympic second-round qualifying match against
Jordan because they refused to remove their hijabs before kick off.
Black Power salute
Sports Illustrated said it was the most reproduced image in the history of the Olympics: two American athletes stand atop the medal platform, their heads bowed and their right hands raised to the sky, fists clenched in protest.
At the 1968 Mexico City Olympics American sprinter Tommie Smith won the 200 metres and fellow countryman John Carlos came in third.
The athletes received their medals and took the the platform for the national anthem.
When the Star Spangled
Banner began both Carlos and Smith performed the “Black Power” salute.
Carlos and Smith were protesting the treatment of black Americans and other minorities in the United States.
They were roundly booed when they left the podium and both were expelled from the Games.
Taking a knee
In 2016, San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick took a knee during the national anthem to protest against racial injustice and police brutality in the United States.
Throughout the 2017 season, dozens on players on many teams chose to sit or kneel during the US national anthem at the start of games in support of Kaepernick.
The move sparked mass debate across the country as to whether NFL games were the right platform to stage social and political protest.
For the players concerned, this did not amount to disrespect for flag or country.
In the vaunted land of the free, they wished freely to register concern about issues of race and justice.
An undeniably divisive president, Donald Trump, saw it differently and said NFL team owners should fire anyone making such a gesture.
Black armbands
Henry Olonga and teammate Andy Flower made international headlines in 2003 when they wore black armbands to in a World Cup game against Namibia at the Harare Sports Club to “mourn the death of democracy” in Zimbabwe under the government of autocrat Robert Mugabe.
Flower, the country’s most successful player, and Olonga, the first black cricketer to represent Zimbabwe, knew they were throwing away their international careers when they issued a statement to journalists condemning Mugabe’s brutal land reforms against white farmers.
A warrant was issued in Zimbabwe for Olonga’s arrest on charges of treason.
Death threats made him go temporarily into hiding, and then into exile in England after Zimbabwe’s last match of the tournament, against Sri Lanka in East London.