The new crusade against VAR: offside

The VAR is getting out of hand. In the sense that the controversy passes from the arms to the offside. If last week the front that the referees had open was that of the Cádiz protests by the hand of Negredo, This day has touched the protests of Koeman and Barcelona for the very fair offside of Griezmann. Mendy's was also very tight and that from Las Rozas they also warned. Two very hasty actions, whose first sensation was that there was no illegal position, but which ended with the cancellation of two goals after the intermediation of the VAR.

The anger in Can Barça came due to the annulled goal to Messi in the first part of the clash against Alavés. Figuero Vázquez conceded it, but he had to retract after the warning from Cuadra Fernández, in the VOR, in which they pointed out that in a previous play there was offside. It was that Griezmann's shoulder was more advanced than the foot of the last defender. The image broadcast on television, with the lines drawn by Cuadra Fernández, showed a very hasty offside, where the lines were almost mounted and the visual effect offered doubts. “It wasn't offside. It was a legal goal. We all agree in the club. It is not a good sign that the VAR continues to bring so much controversy “, Guillermo Amor protested after the game. A speech he shared Koeman: “The VAR must have a magnifying glass to whistle an offside like that. It is a legal goal”. Both criticized the tightness of the decision, since the image showed that the offside exists. The only error attributable to the VAR was not sending an image with more zoom, in which it was better specified that orsay exists. A guideline from Velasco Carballo, president of the arbitrators, in this type of case. Zoom in the style of the Hawkeye in tennis to judge if the ball has entered or not.

In the last few days there have been very hasty off-games that have made the fans doubt. This is how the AS and Carrusel referee, Iturralde González, points out: “In some lines you have to have more an act of faith than a confirmation of the fact itself. The human component enters the play. On a computer you don't have the resolution and you have to click under your shoulder. They themselves (in the VAR) shoot themselves in the foot. What they are doing is creating half Spain of atheists. It is proven that there is a minimum of 10 centimeters of error. You cannot do something like dogma. This play in the Netherlands would have been a goal by leaving that margin of error. “

From the Technical Committee of Referees they defend the lines that offers the Hawk-Eye system, which is used in Spain, as well as in UEFA, FIFA and other major league competitions. They point to They are the most accurate and the most tested in the world of football. There is no other more effective system implemented in football to draw offside. They are the same that are used in the Champions League and those that will be used in the European Championship this summer. This offside system will be improved for the future (a semi-automatic system is expected to be tested at the next World Cup in 2022).

The controversy of the thickness of the lines

One of the debates generated around the offside lines is their thickness. In the Netherlands it is established that the lines are five centimeters thick each and if they overlap the VAR does not rectify the decision of the field referee. An idea that has been liked on social networks and that they request to be implanted in LaLiga. Although the debate about its thickness is complex, as they have explained to AS. The lines used to draw offside do not have a specific thickness. They depend on the camera that captured the action (In the broadcasts there are different image quality, from some that record in a high to others that are capable of capturing a large number of frames as they are of the type superslow) and the type of plane. Not all shots are used to draw the lines.

How does the VAR plot offside?

For now, the process carried out by the VAR referees to determine whether or not there is offside is as follows. They first select an image in which there is the first contact of the ball from the passer to the attacker who may be in an illegal position. Following the frame selected to draw the lines, identify the most forward part of the body of the attacker and the last defender (excluding hands and arms) to pull both lines. In case of being very tight the decision, the guideline is to check a frame before and one after to see if the initial result persists. If the VAR referee obtains in this process evidence that there is an error in the lineman's decision, he must notify the field player despite the fact that it is for a very little space of difference.

Another of the claims that is made from Spain to the arbitration group is to show the process of drawing the offside lines on television. This is how they do it in the Premier League. During the broadcasts, it is checked how the VAR selects the players' points to draw out of play, something that does not happen in LaLiga. The Spanish braids follow the UEFA guidelines, which do not recommend showing this process, and only show the final result of the work so that the fans can check the image with the drawn lines. The same thing that is done in the Champions League and it will be done in the June Eurocup. It will have to be UEFA that opens its hand to show how the VAR works during the drawing of lines and thus in Spain the same thing happens. Although it seems difficult for that to happen.