January 09, (THEWILL) – On Wednesday, July 10, 2019, history was made in African football when the quarter-final clash between Senegal and Benin at the June 30 Stadium in Cairo, Egypt, became the first-ever game on the continent to employ the Video Assistant Referee (VAR) technology. The system was being tested by the Confederation of African Football (CAF) for evaluation, pending a decision to fully engage the technology for officiating all matches and tournaments at the continental level. Hence, in Egypt in 2019, VAR was only employed from the quarter-finals of the competitions after the International Football Association Board (IFAB) and world soccer governing body, FIFA, approved the use of the technology.
That historic use of VAR on the continent was preceded by a swathe of mock runs dating back to the CAF Super Cup clash between Wydad Athletic Club of Morocco and TP Mazembe of DR Congo in Casablanca in February 2018. It was followed by the final matches of the CAF inter-club competitions in 2018 and another mock usage during the African Nations Championship in Morocco in the same year. After these mock runs and pleased with the progress made, CAF employed the technology at the AFCON in Egypt with the green light given the usage by football bodies, IFAB and FIFA. Yet, the novelty of the system meant that two European referees, Paulinus Van Boekel from the Netherlands and Benoit Millot from France, were brought on board to support the VAR system based on their experience and familiarity with the technology and to avoid hiccups that could be inimical to the smooth-running of the football matches.
History is about to be made again with the confirmation from CAF that all 52 matches to be played at the 24-teamed 33rd edition of the continental football showpiece, tagged the TotalEnergies 2021 AFCON for sponsorship purposes, will apply the VAR technology in all the stadiums in Cameroon. This step elevates the level of officiating and game management of football on the continent to match levels obtainable in other football Associations, Confederations and Federations across the globe, where the technology is becoming mainstream.
As a system, which applies video footage and headphone communication to assist the match officials and head referee examine decisions made so as to reduce human errors that can bear a significant impact on match results, it has been a welcome development for football match officiating. Many a football player had perfected the art of simulation to fool unassisted referees into awarding free-kicks, penalty kicks, yellow and red cards when the reality of the play did not actually warrant any of those as replays often revealed. It was to curtail the human errors that inevitably creeped into significant and result-altering refereeing decisions that formed part of the rationale for the introduction of VAR.
As the TotalEnergies 2021 AFCON kicks off with the full complement of VAR backing up the decisions of the head match official, the question to ask is whether the technology has lived up to the idealistic objective of its adherents in eliminating the errors that impeded the fair officiating of football games and unfairly gave the advantage to one side or the other. The English Premier League, where VAR has been in use for the second straight full season, is as good as any place to apply as an example in the determination of the pros and cons of the technology.
If the furore that the officiating and game management in the 2021/2022 season and the debates to rethink how VAR is employed for the betterment of the officiating is anything to go by, then there is a lot that the VAR match referees at AFCON can learn from England.
To begin with controversies, on the first day of the New Year, a Premier League tie between Arsenal and Manchester City finished 2-1 in favour of Pep Guardiola’s side, but the spotlight was directly trained on the officiating and use of VAR. The query was hinged on the apparent lack of consistency as both sides had a player brought down in the box. But, while one infringement was reviewed on the pitch-side monitor to the point of overturning an initial “no penalty” decision and awarding a penalty, the other was not, thus questioning the purpose of video refereeing when the match official is not making use of the available technology to make both informed and evidence-based decisions that are fair to both teams.
In another match, Watford lost by a lone goal to Antonio Conte’s Tottenham Hotspur. The match was a continuation of the latter’s impressive form under Conte, but the first-half dominance rarely looked like opening up a resolute home side. In the end, it took a rare moment of quality to finally unlock Watford, as Son Heung-Min’s late free-kick put the ball on a plate for Davinson Sanchez’s winner. But, 10 minutes earlier, Watford’s Joao Pedro’s penalty shout was waved off when there was something of Hugo Lloris’s challenge on the substitute as he raced towards putting his side ahead. VAR looked through the same video footage that fans and pundits saw and still could not call the referee to check and possibly review his initial decision to allow play continue. That provided the basis for Spurs to claim all three points with a late goal.
The following day, Chelsea played a 2-all draw against Liverpool with a tightly-contested first half of the table-topping clash of the second and third clubs in the EPL. Two early Liverpool goals were cancelled out by an energetic Chelsea comeback in a game that petered out in the final stages of the second period. But the talking point centered around an incident that took place after just 15 seconds into the fixture. Sadio Mane left a shiner on César Azpilicueta’s face with his forearm, that was still visibly red even after the match, when the Spaniard as delivering post-match comments. The referee reached into his pocket and where a red could have been issued for the blatant blow to the face, Mane got off with just a cautionary yellow.
It is for tough but clear-cut decisions such as these, which can completely change the outcome of these ties and keep the players within the rules of the game, that VAR was considered necessary. Yet, where the technology is supposed to make a difference, penalty calls and red card infringements, examples such as these, and some more, leave many players, managers and fans scratching their heads. This is because the benefit of looking at replays in slow motion and from different angles provides enough material for the VAR to correctly advise the referee on the right call to make in the same way that viewers at home and pundits on TV do. Still, somewhere between what evidence the referee sees by himself and what VAR tells the referee about a call, a final decision is made that sometimes is a departure from the fact with the potential to completely and unfairly change the outcome of the game.
Take the case of Harry Kane’s challenge against Liverpool’s Andy Robertson, in which Kane had his studs up as he slid into the Scotland captain. Luckily for Robertson, he jumped high enough to avoid full contact from Kane’s studs. Regardless of the fact that Robertson, who only returned from a hamstring injury while playing for Scotland in the November international window, must have been playing for caution and avoiding another lengthy injury spell, Kane ought to have been dealt the penalty for such a reckless challenge that had the potential of causing grave harm. Robertson’s contribution in that game was enough to give Liverpool a 2-all draw. If those studs had caught him, the result would have been different.
Also, a red card for Kane had the potential to change the final score because he contributed immensely to the Spurs’ score sheet. However, when Robertson slid to stop Emerson Royal, he was red-carded. Again, similar acts, same game, different refereeing decisions.
Of the few decisions that have been egregious when it comes to officiating, Newcastle will feel most aggrieved given that they do not have enough wiggle room down in the relegation battle and need every bleeding point they can muster. Every decision that goes against them drags them deeper into the mire of the red zone that they are battling to stay out of it. Yet, against Liverpool, with midfielder Isaac Hayden flat out on the turf from a head injury, inside the box, the referee and VAR still allowed Diogo Jota to score in the 21st minute of their December 16 fixture. Newcastle went on to lose 3-1, with penalty appeals turned down after midfielder Ryan Fraser went down under a challenge from Trent Alexander-Arnold, who went on to score the final, third goal. It is left to the imagination what the final scoreline could have been had the any penalty been awarded to Newcastle and Alexander-Arnold penalised as a result.
The consequences of these poor calls are fully borne by the victims and the clubs unfairly punished by bad officiating. In December, the Premier League authorities notified West Ham that two controversial decisions made against them by referees in recent games were incorrect. When Dwight McNeil took down Craig Dawson in the box during the 0-0 draw with Burnley at Turf Moor on December 12, the Hammers were aggrieved not to get a penalty. Three days later, during the Irons’ 2-0 loss to Arsenal, Vladimir Coufal was awarded a red card for a tackle on Alexandre Lacazette in which replays revealed he got the ball first. The Professional Game Match Officials Limited (PGMOL), a committee founded in 2001 to “improve refereeing standards in the United Kingdom,” has informed West Ham that both of those major decisions were incorrect, but the results stand, the points are lost and the Hammers bear the brunt.
For now, teams have no means of knowing which instances were examined by the VAR panel and how much of their contribution leads to the final decision of the referee. This has only fuelled more bad blood between the officiating and game management and the clubs. Following the group stage of the world cup in 2018, FIFA referees committee head Pierluigi Collina held a news conference where he revealed footage of the decision-making process as well as audio of the exchanges between VAR officials and the referees. Collina responded warmly when asked whether the audio could be made public, as it is in rugby and cricket, but cautioned that it might still be too early. That may help to make the decision-making process some quality of transparency and go a long way to make it reliable.
That is the lesson that AFCON must take from what has so far transpired with VAR in the EPL as the historic continental competition kicks off on Sunday to ensure that poor officiating does not impede the smooth flow of games at the tournament in Cameroon.
About the Author
Jude Obafemi is a versatile senior Correspondent at THEWILL Newspapers, excelling in sourcing, researching, and delivering sports news stories for both print and digital publications.
