The Club World Cup started with a victory and the first of the ‘new’ VAR in which the referee explains his decision to the fans

As happened with the semi-automatic offside in Qatar 2022, it didn’t take long to see the ‘new’ VAR in action in the Club World Cup, where the main referee -after examining the totem- must publicly explain the decision made for all fans in the stands to listen, just like in American football. This Wednesday, in Morocco, there was a clear superiority of the runner-up of the ‘Champions’ of Africa, Al Ahly3-0 against the champions of Oceania, Auckland citywho resisted with a defensive approach until the last action of the first act and lacked offensive capacity to continue in the competition.

Now the Egyptian side dreams of taking on Real Madrid, which they achieved with flying colors on their competition debut in Tangier. Always dominant, with the patience to overcome the rival’s defensive system and impose a clear individual superiority. He got the pass for the quarterfinals, where the winner of Concacaf awaits him Seattle sirensnext Saturday, as the last leg of the duel against the European champion.

With everything defined by goals from El Shahat, Sherif and Tau, there weren’t too many complications for Chinese referee Ning Ma. But in added time, he whistled for a penalty after strong offense on the edge of the box from Adam Mitchell – it was booked – and everything was ready for the auction.

But the VAR, headed by compatriot Fu Ming, summoned him to review him because the offense had clearly been outside the area. It took too long for Ning Ma to change an obvious decision, although perhaps the delay was due to the fact that he was considering sending off for preventing the New Zealand defender from an obvious scoring opportunity.

Until now the referee only had to make gestures or signals to communicate his decision, but this Wednesday the Chinese referee -in English- had to explain through the loudspeakers that the offense had taken place outside the area and that the Auckland player would be expelled.