PHOTO: Qatar’s Mahmoud Abunada fouls Switzerland’s Remo Freuler to concede a penalty. (REUTERS)
By Daily Review Online
It has just been few days since the start of the FIFA World Cup, but the controversies are coming thick and fast in the 48-team tournament. FIFA are now under fire after failing to share a VAR replay of Switzerland’s controversial penalty decision against Qatar on Saturday. The Europeans were handed out a spot kick after Qatar goalkeeper Mahmoud Abunada appeared to bring down Remo Freuler.
There was little to no doubt that Freuler had been fouled, but replays seemed to show that he strayed offside. However, the original decision stood after a VAR review, and Switzerland took the lead when Breel Embolo converted the penalty in the 17th minute.
The replay of the decision wasn’t shown, and FIFA is now facing criticism from all corners. Former England star Gary Neville traded barbs at the world body for not doing enough to show the replays.
“Offside. We all think it here that it was offside. Everybody at home thinks it. Fifa are the host broadcaster, and they have the semi-automatic decision that they can show us,” mirror.co.uk quoted Neville as saying.
“Why are they not showing us? They did this in the last tournament. Fans are already distrustful of FIFA and technology to start with. There is a massive question over that because it is offside in my eyes until they prove me different,” he added.
The former Manchester United defender added that not showing replays is like “dictatorship”, saying fans should be given proof of all decisions, as the World Cup is all about fine margins.
“It’s like a dictator. Honestly, it’s like a dictatorship, this. The idea that they hold this evidence internally and don’t show fans of countries that are playing in tournaments. It’s absolutely ridiculous,” said Neville.
“Honestly, to not show the evidence of an offside. Prove to us it’s offside. Show it straight away. Why not the transparency?” he added.
Neville’s colleague Ian Wright agreed with what Neville said, dubbing the incident a “scandal.” “With the semi-automatic line, why haven’t we seen that? We actually don’t need to see it, we see it in the Premier League every week, he looks offside, I just don’t understand it. They do what they want; they’re sitting in the office. It’s a scandal,” said Wright.
FIFA release statement
After receiving criticism from several corners, FIFA issued a statement, confirming that the technology providing VAR offside images went down before Switzerland’s controversial opening goal against Qatar.
“During the Qatar vs. Switzerland match in the San Francisco Bay Area, a brief technical outage prevented the onside animation graphic from being generated ahead of the penalty awarded to Switzerland in the 14th minute. The issue was quickly resolved,” FIFA stated.
“The workflow of the VAR was not affected by this issue and followed the normal procedure in checking the on-field decision. The lines used by the VAR to check the position of the relevant players did not show the attacking player to be in an offside position in either of the two situations immediately before the penalty decision,” the body added.
Speaking of the Group B match between Qatar and Switzerland, the tie ended in a 1-1 draw. Qatar walked away with one point after scoring in the dying minutes of the game.