Global Courant 2023-05-02 13:45:36
Boca-Racing and Vélez-San Lorenzo shone due to referee errors. Why isn’t technology applied when the head judge is wrong? One by one, the plays that should have been reviewed.
The World Champions League is the slogan that the AFA devised for the Argentine tournament. From the strictly marketing spirit, a selling name. However, it could be accompanied by a sign that no one will want to advertise on Viamonte 1366. It is also the championship for controversial arbitrations that fuel suspicion. The fans do not believe in the men with the whistle and the VAR does not help much, which came as an overcoming tool that ended up being functional at the whim of the judges who observe the monitors in the Ezeiza central office.
This date had some plays that left the debate open: why isn’t technology applied when the main judge is wrong? As a first measure, it must be said that they are all reviewed. In the VOR booth (Video Office Room) of the Arbitration Training Directorate there are three judges: VAR, AVAR and Quality Manager with a television producer who cuts the images that arrive from the outdoor truck.
In Vélez-San Lorenzo and Boca-Racing there were situations that should have had a different outcome. Both Hernán Mastrángelo and Andrés Merlos on the field of play as well as Nicolás Lamolina and Leandro Rey Hilfer in virtual support were wrong. And there were doubts in Independiente-Belgrano about the performance of Darío Herrera and Jorge Baliño, although the hands of the penalties that led to the goals of Martín Cauteruccio are in a sanctionable framework, much in spite of the discussions.
Federico Beligoy did not help to clarify. Claudio Tapia’s man, the head of the referees is highly questioned by the leaders off-screen and by the fans through social networks. Consulted this Monday about the play by Valentín Barco, who had to be sent off for an ironing on Facundo Mura, he commented: “In the face of a River – Boca I am not going to comment on the plays of either of them out of respect for them, to its fans and to the biggest soccer contest that is going to take place in a week, which is the Superclásico. Opining on a play is not what corresponds ”.
What did he mean without saying Beligoy? That they should not have been expelled in Boca and River before the most important duel in the country? Merlos not only did not expel Barco, despite the fact that the repetitions were eloquent. He also did not throw out Gabriel Hauche for a head butt to Martín Payero, Gonzalo Piovi for a kick without a ball on Luis Vázquez and Sebastián Villa for an elbow on Mura. He ended up showing the red to Payero, who hit a punch, and to Juan Nardoni, whose only sin was receiving the blow from Boca’s midfielder while Luis Advíncula took him by the neck.
Leonardo Sigali, captain of Racing, chose to target the press. “There was a lot of talk about the referees, that it was not a penalty against Independiente. Journalism generated this. It depends on journalism. The controversies with Boca are specific plays that I cannot handle. You (journalists) can handle it from a microphone. They have the power, ”he shot. Is it Beligoy or journalism that appoints the referees? It is the leaders who ask for the referees. And they are all conditioned.
And they also request that you not direct them so-and-so. It happened a while after the tie between Vélez and San Lorenzo in Liniers. That day, the referee annulled a legitimate goal by Adam Bareiro for a non-existent offense against Miguel Brizuela. And a few hours later, the Barça leaders slipped that they will ask the AFA that Mastrángelo not be appointed again to lead their parties. The same thing happened with Atlético Tucumán, coincidentally after a match against Ciclón, with Fernando Espinoza. There are referees who are banned in some clubs or cities. Although the geographical question has to do with the own and historical limits that the mother house of soccer imposes on itself. Fernando Rapallini, to cite an emblematic case, does not lead in La Plata.
“We always said that we didn’t want to distort football with technology, but when a process begins, you start from scratch with something new and mistakes or different paths may appear that one corrects over time. Only a year has passed since the arrival of the VAR and we are convinced of what we said before and we are working on it more and more so that the VAR does not distort a football match, it does not have to enter all the time and it does have to enter to make clear and obvious mistakes ”, he emphasized Beligoy regarding technological support.
The person in charge of conducting the judges does not accelerate something that has been claimed for a long time: the VAR audios, as happens in international tournaments through Conmebol, or in other sports such as rugby or hockey, are conspicuous by their absence. Beligoy says it’s because they have to establish a “protocol” for speaking in technical terms. Or is it that they don’t want the answers to be heard because it will be difficult to justify some failures?
Last week a circular was issued to avoid “repeated situations of widespread protests and tumultuous conflicts within the field of play” and demanded admonishment for “disapproving by word and/or action of referee decisions”, and expel for “using offensive language or gesture , insulting or humiliating towards teammates, rivals or members of the arbitration team”. It happened in some games that there was great severity in these matters of form and the same substance was not seen when it came to collecting infractions.
