Jury’s out on video review experiment
PARIS — The video-technology experiment that cost France against Spain this week earned mixed reviews on Wednesday, with the trial praised for fairness but condemned for ruining the game’s excitement.
France lost Tuesday’s friendly 2-0 in Paris, a game in which Spain benefitted twice from crucial decisions from the video-assistant referee. An Antoine Griezmann goal for France was ruled offside after the video was reviewed, while Spain’s second goal, scored by Gerard Deulofeu, was awarded by the video ref after initially being disallowed.
For the French, who decided to trial video assistance for the first time at the game, the outcome was galling, even though fans and players recognized the justice and potential benefits of the system.
“If it allows you to correct mistakes, as has been the case here, even though it went against us, that seems to me to be good for justice in sport,” said France coach Didier Deschamps.
His Spanish counterpart, Julen Lopetegui, had no arguments with the decisions.
“The refereeing resolved the two actions in a fair manner,” he said.
However, it was clear that the video-review process, which took dozens of seconds to conduct each time, put something of a dampener on the action.
The system might be fair, admitted France captain and goal keeper Hugo L loris ,“but is also kills off the joy of scoring a goal”. France striker Griezmann headed in what appeared to be the opener at Stade de France shortly after halftime, triggering delight in the stands and on the field after the host had been dominated throughout the first period. Then came the appeal and the long wait for a verdict.
Wait to celebrate
“It is a pain because you have to wait before you can celebrate the goal,” said Griezmann.
His Atletico Madrid teammate Kevin Gameiro concurred, arguing that the flow of the match is lost and the “beauty of the game is broken”.
The 80,000 spectators at the stadium were left out of the process with no video slowmotion screen to view. The only indication that a video review was being conducted was the referee’s hand gestures as he framed the shape of a TV screen.
“That dehumanizes the game a bit, and can detract from the spectacle,” said former referee Bruno Derrien.
“Soccer is about sentiments, including that of injustice. Video takes responsibility away from the assistant referees. If I was an assistant I wouldn’t lift the flag to call offside anymore because you have video to decide all that.”
Use of technology, which is favored by FIFA president Gianni Infantino, was first introduced in the 2014 World Cup finals to determine whether the ball had crossed the goal-line in scoring situations. Goal-line technology, which is also used in the English Premier League, is clearcut and uncontroversial, unlike the use of video assistance which can sometimes require fine judgement.
Pascal Caribian, the head of refereeing at the French Football Federation, said there should be no rush to judge video assistance, which is being trialled with a view to its possible introduction at next year’s World Cup finals in Russia.
“It is really necessary to have a large number of games before you judge,” Caribian said, adding it was not by chance that FIFA and IFAB, which oversees the rules of soccer, had asked for a twoyear trial period.