On the biggest stage of all, VAR failed – but referee must take the blame
Ihave been impressed with the video assistant referee during the World Cup, but in yesterday’s final, on the biggest stage of all, the system completely failed. Neither of France’s two first-half goals should have counted, and the penalty award for the second was simply staggering.
It highlighted what I believe is still the fatal flaw when it comes to VAR – the fact the on-field referee makes the key decision. There was no doubt the ball hit Ivan Perisic’s hand but Nestor Pitana, the Argentine official, had ruled no offence had been committed.
But when he is told by his VAR, Massimiliano Irrati, that he needs to review the decision, Pitana’s view naturally changes. As he is being asked to have another look, he assumes he has made a mistake and the chance of him overturning his original call is enormous.
He also has to make that call while standing at the side of the pitch, in front of a crowd of 78,000 and a television audience in the hundreds of millions. I believe it would be better if the VAR makes the call and then transmits the decision to the referee. But I am afraid to say the officials got this one wrong. To issue a sanction, the referee must decide it was a “deliberate” handball, and there is no way that was the case here.
Perisic’s hand is in a natural position and he had no time to react after the ball went past Blaise Matuidi. That is obvious when you watch the incident in real-time, but Pitana was shown slow-motion replays. Seeing an incident in slow-motion removes any context and makes it look worse.
Only full-speed clips should be shown, and if that had been so, I do not think a penalty would have been awarded. Pitana is a good, strong referee, but I felt sorry for him as he was tied in knots by the system designed to help him.
I also believe France’s opening goal should not have stood as it came from a free-kick awarded after a blatant act of simulation by Antoine Griezmann.
I understand why Pitana was fooled, but there must be a case for using VAR here. The system is designed to prevent goals being awarded if there has been an infringement in the build-up and that was the case.
Sadly, we were left with a situation where France were 2-1 ahead, but neither goal should have counted. It was an unsatisfactory end to a tournament where VAR has worked far better than I feared it might.
Keith Hackett is a former Premier League referee.