The VAR, the instrument that has come to do justice and generates only controversy: the blunders of the date

The World Champions Cup is the slogan that the AFA has created for the Argentine tournament. From a strictly marketing spirit, a sales name. However, it could be accompanied by a sign that nobody wants to advertise at Viamonte 1366. It is also the league of controversial arbitrations that fuel suspicion. Fans don’t believe in whistles and VAR doesn’t help muchwhich came as an overcoming tool that ended up serving the capricious criteria of the judges who watch the monitors in the Ezeiza headquarters.

This date had some comedies that left the debate open: Why isn’t the technology applied when the Chief Justice is wrong? As a first measure, it must be said that they are all revised. In the VOR stand (Video Office Room) of the Arbitration Training Department there are three judges: VAR, AVAR and Quality Manager with a television producer cutting the images coming from the truck outdoors.

In Vélez-San Lorenzo and Boca-Racing there were situations that should have had another outcome. Both Hernán Mastrángelo and Andrés Merlos on the pitch, as well as Nicolás Lamolina and Leandro Rey Hilfer in virtual support, missed. And there were doubts in Independiente-Belgrano about the performance of Darío Herrera and Jorge Baliño, even if the hands of the penalties that led to Martín Cauteruccio’s goal are in a punishable framework, despite the arguments.

Federico Beligoy did not help clarify. Claudio Tapia’s man, the head of the referees, is frequently consulted by off-field managers and fans via social media. Consulted this Monday on the comedy of Valentín Barco, who was expelled for a blow to Facundo Mura, he commented: “In front of a river – Boca I won’t comment on the plays of either of them out of respect for them, for their fans and for the biggest football competition that will take place in a week, namely the Superclásico. Opinion about a play is not what it corresponds to ”.

What did Beligoy mean without saying? That they shouldn’t have been expelled to Boca and River before the most important duel in the country? Merlos not only didn’t send Barco off, despite the fact that the repetitions were eloquent. Nor did he knock out Gabriel Hauche for a headbutt on Martín Payero, Gonzalo Piovi for an off-ball kick on Luis Vázquez and Sebastián Villa for an elbow on Mura. He ended up flashing Payero, who landed a punch, and Juan Nardoni, whose only sin was receiving the blow from the Boca midfielder while Luis Advíncula grabbed him by the neck.

Leonardo Sigali, Captain of Racing, has chosen to target the press. “There was a lot of talk about the referees, which was not a penalty against Independiente. Journalism spawned this. It depends on journalism. The controversies with Boca are specific plays that I can’t 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’s the managers who ask for the referees. And they are all conditioned.

And they also ask you not to direct them so and so. It happened shortly after the draw between Vélez and San Lorenzo in Liniers. That day, the referee disallowed a legitimate goal by Adam Bareiro for a non-existent infringement against Miguel Brizuela. And just hours later, Barça’s leaders slipped on whether they will ask the AFA that Mastrángelo not be appointed to lead their parties again. 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. Even if the geographical question has to do with the historical limits imposed by the parent company of football. Fernando Rapallini, to cite an emblematic case, does not lead to La Plata.

“We have always said that we didn’t want to distort football with technology, but when a process begins, it starts from scratch with something new and errors or different paths can appear that correct themselves over time. It has only been a year since the arrival of the VAR and we are convinced of what we have said before and we are working on it more and more so that the VAR does not distort a football match, it must not always enter and it must enter to clarify and obvious errors ”, Beligoy stressed regarding the technological support.

The person in charge of conducting the judges is not speeding up something that has long been vindicated: 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 answers heard because some failures will be hard to justify?

A circular was issued last week to avoid “repeated situations of widespread protests and tumultuous conflicts within the field of play” and called for a caution for “disapproval by word and/or deed of referees’ decisions”, and expulsion for “use of offensive, abusive or humiliating language or gestures towards teammates, rivals or members of the refereeing panel”. It happened in some matches that there was great severity in these matters of form and you did not see the same substance when it came to collecting the infractions.