In Spain, the minutes of the conversations between the field referee and the video referee have recently been published. Dialogues from a polemical Real Madrid game show how much the ghosts of video evidence have taken on a life of their own.
Referee Francisco José Hernández Maeso (left) warns Real player Dani Carvajal after he scored the winning goal.
Florence Tan Jun/Getty
Who referees a football game, the referee on the pitch or the one on the screen? Since the introduction of video evidence, this question has been on the minds of fans around the world. Interesting insights into the answer now come from Spain.
In a Europe-wide pioneering attempt, all conversation protocols from scenes in which the video referee (VAR) asks the field referee to check on the monitor have been published for two rounds. As if on order, the most controversial league game in many years followed last Sunday: Thanks to three VAR interventions, Real Madrid turned a 0-2 defeat against bottom-placed Almería into a 3-2.
“I recommend you do an on-field review”: With this anglicism, the VAR called Alejandro José Hernández Hernández – an experienced FIFA referee – the field referee Francisco José Hernández Maeso – a newcomer to La Liga – within ten minutes in the second Three times at the screen at halftime. First there was a hand penalty for Real to make it 1:2, with the second intervention a goal from Almería was disallowed to make the score 1:3 and with the third one a goal from Real that was initially disallowed because of hands was declared correct to make it 2:2. Maeso revised himself three times on the recommendation of the VAR.
Small selection of perspectives
Maeso’s ad hoc decisions on the pitch were by no means uncontroversially wrong. Rather, experts and professional colleagues analyzed that he was right in the first scene. Only in the second case did they predominantly consider the correction after video study to be justified. On the third, opinions remained divided even several hours and countless slow motions later.
During the first intervention, the penalty scene, the video referee showed the field referee a small selection of camera angles and pointed out a hand from an Almería player. However, he didn’t say a word about previous foul play by Real, which all experts believed had justified Maesa’s original decision. “Why aren’t the other camera angles shown to the referee?” asked UD Almería in a reaction on his X account.
There is no need to see a conspiracy here. The limited selection of perspectives may also have been because Hernández did not want to allow the procedure time to get too long. The delays are another criticism of the VAR. But at the end of the quick check, there was a wrong decision in this case. The episode illustrates how video evidence creates its own problems.
Real Madrid’s Lineup vs Almeria.pic.twitter.com/L2IxkghFn7
— SB15460 (@SB15460) January 21, 2024
The field referee as a mere vicarious agent
During the third intervention, Real’s 2-2 goal, the VAR initially said to the field referee: “You should look at the non-handball again.” Before he corrected himself: “The possible non-handball.” Hernández made his opinion clear in his first words. He then explained several times apodictically: “The ball goes to his shoulder.” No one else in the country saw the scene so clearly. The VAR Hernández clearly exceeded his intended authority.
IS IT A GOAL OR A HAND?
In the Spanish League game Real Madrid vs Almeria this action occurred, Vinicius hits the ball and ends up putting it in the goal. The VAR and the referee gave the GOAL because “according to them” the Brazilian hit the ball with his shoulder. What do you see? pic.twitter.com/FLLoxz07ud— joseborda (@joseborda1) January 21, 2024
Brief review: The video evidence was pushed by the self-proclaimed FIFA reformer Gianni Infantino from 2016 onwards after decades of rejection by the football authorities in order to be able to correct “clear and manifest wrong decisions”. But the regulators at the International Football Association Board (Ifab) were aware of the sensitivity of the matter. Especially in a sport like football, where many scenes take place in a gray area. Therefore, the technology should only serve as a check for the field referee and should in no way deprive him of his autonomy.
Eight years later, the conversation protocols from Spain show how much the summoned spirits have taken on a life of their own. In any case, on Sunday in Madrid the actual game director was sitting in the closet. With arbitrary excerpts and clear announcements, the experienced Hernández reduced the young Maesa to a mere vicarious agent.