Officials are guilty of using VAR in wrong way
The video assistant referee system is supposed to help, not hinder, referees, but in a crucial World Cup match between Portugal and Iran it prompted Enrique Caceres to overturn correct decisions and undermined his authority.
The Paraguayan official was not blameless, losing the respect of all players because he failed to punish dissent and pieces of gamesmanship. The game was too big a challenge for him. He was not helped however, by a VAR team who went hunting for decisions to make. I am increasingly convinced that the four video referees in Moscow are not strictly following the criteria laid down by the International Football Association Board, that states VAR should only be consulted when there is a “clear and obvious error”. If not, the system should stay out of it.
Not only was Caceres’s decision to dismiss Iran’s stoppage-time penalty appeal for handball against Portugal’s Cedric Soares not a clear and obvious error, it was not an error at all. He was correct not giving a penalty. The public might believe that the ball striking a defender’s hand in the box is automatically a penalty, but that is not the case. Handball involves the deliberate act of making contact with the ball with the hand or arm, with distance from ball to hand and the movement of the hand considered. There was a similar incident involving Argentina’s Marcos Rojo last night. VAR’S decision to call for an on-field review planted a seed of doubt in Caceres’s mind. In theory, VAR gets involved only if there is something wrong with the original decision, so referees naturally feel they must have made some kind of mistake.
They are then faced with a slow-motion replay under intense pressure from the aggrieved team. Slow-motion always exaggerates and embellishes incidents – you can see things that are not there, and read too much into it. That is why the IFAB criteria must be adhered to, and the technology used judiciously. VAR is to cover the cracks when a referee makes a bad mistake, not do his job for him.
The same can be said for the penalty awarded to Portugal, which Cristiano Ronaldo missed. Caceres’s call not to give the penalty was not a “clear and obvious mistake” and VAR should not have got involved.
Once players sensed that VAR was being used liberally, they started to play up for the cameras.
Ronaldo’s arm across the face of Iran’s Saeid Ezatolahi was reckless but not excessive force – a clear yellow-card offence. The correct decision was eventually arrived at, but there was no need for VAR.
Are those in charge learning from the mistakes in Russia? There has been no explanation as to why Tunisia wrestling Harry Kane to the ground went unchecked by VAR, likewise Switzerland’s treatment of Serbia striker Aleksandar Mitrovic. Greater clarity must be provided.
Keith Hackett is the resident expert at You Are The Ref