Not quite 'Barca' news, but here we go.
RFEF reps of the Arbitration Committee (Carlos Velasco Carballo and Clos Gomez) held a routine end-of-season summary press conference
I won't directly translate somebody else's transcript translations from another language. There will probably be (or there is already?) a Guardian article of some sort about it anyway, but here's a summary and stats:
- the Committee have internally analysed 4442 clips of contentious pitch incidents, 946 of them together with the referees involved. In the season prior numbers were 2794 and 650.
- Carballo said season was difficult due to tensions and exaggerated criticism, and despite that the refereeing has improved with respect to the season prior.
- VAR has corrected more incidents than the season prior. In Carballo's opinion, the problem appeared due to public impression that VAR will remove mistakes while it was introduced predominantly for clear and obvious situations, but ultimately its use is down to human judgement, and VAR is inherently fallible
- Carballo highlighted a worrying trend - lack of understanding of rules of the game by the media and the fans, which leads to a new phenomenon - criticising correct refereeing decisions. Media have created an atmosphere where a good decision is presented as a mistake, which is used to criticise VAR and creation of scandals, controversy, declarations or even official statements. He also reminded how he was forced to issue a public statement to defend the referees' understanding of rules of the game. To end this track of thought Carballo noted he'd like to at least once see or hear praise for VAR because of the extent to which it has helped eliminate mistakes in Spanish football.
- 10 advantages of VAR were highlighted: 1) lack of offside goals scored, 2) no legal goals were disallowed due to purportedly offside position, 3) problem of fouls within and outside the penalty area was resolved, 4) dangerous plays were eliminated, 5) violent incidents unseen by the referee were eliminated, 6) problem of ball going out of play unseen is no more, 7) no goals are scored via handball, 8) all of the clear penalties are given, 9) no player identity mistakes are made, 10) player simulation, ergo diving, has decreased. The main contentious point remains the judgement of penalty calls due to differences in opinion.
- Referees made calls on a total of 825 incidents inside the penalty area (812 in season prior) - 123 penalties were given (93 before), 702 were deemed as 'play-on'. Of the 825, in 753 cases correct decisions were made (91.27%) and 72 times mistakes were made (8.73%). VAR fixed 51 of the referee decisions. In 21 remaining cases, the mistake was not deemed clear or VAR has made a mistake with lack of intervention. The 21 out of 825 gives 2.55% mistake proportion which is an improvement on prior season's 3.08%.
- 1858 yellow cards were given. 49 were given wrongly and 241 times a yellow card was not given when it should have been. 43 direct reds were gives, 26 by the official outfield, 17 by VAR intervention (32, 25 and 7 respectively for season prior). 2 of these were given wrongly and 6 times red cards were not given as they should have (improvement from 17 in season prior).
- 5741 offside situations occurred, 1706 offsides were given, 4053 times it was not (4697, 1768 and 2929 in season prior). 270 mistakes were made (4.7% compared with 6.47% in season prior) of which VAR has corrected 48 which were key as they led to goals or penalties.
- 942 goals were scored (983 last year). VAR decided for or against 65 goals (60) and directly gave 37 penalties (39) of which 32 were converted (33), so in the end the system influenced 97 goals (93) ergo 10.3% (9.5% last year) of all goals scored.
- Of the 65 situations where VAR intervened, 46 times goal was disallowed, 29 through offside, 15 due to foul, 2 because of ball going out of play. 19 times goals were given, 17 as no-offside, 1 overturned foul and 1 via ball crossing goal line.
- 156 VAR interventions occurred in 380 Primera Division games (2.44 times per game; 121 last year, 3.14 times per game), 65 times regarding goals, 58 for penalty calls (43 given, 15 not), 21 red cards and 7 times due to mistaken identity. Of the 156 interventions, 9 times decision of the official stood (6 penalties, 3 offsides or fouls). The referees have listened to VAR consultations in 94.2% of cases.
- 93 times out of the 156 the official was called over to the touchline booth. It took 91 seconds for VAR alone to make a decision and 126 with the official called over to the booth. Average decision time has gotten slower with respect to last season (110 and 101 seconds respectively).
- Carballo concluded by indicating room for improvement with respect to a) light contact on penalties (more of these are called due to VAR intervention), b) unifying criteria as to when VAR should intervene, c) holding onto the notion that only clear and obvious situations should be reviewed, d) better communication with teams as to the rules and VAR protocol, e) creating a healthier amount of respect between all people involved with football and the referees.
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In the questioning round he was asked regarding Jović handball vs Leganes and commented that one situation does not define relegation - team's performance throughout the season does, while also highlighting handball rules are the most complex of all.
One needs to look at any of the following - 1) deliberate move of hand towards the ball, 2) whether position of the arm is natural (judged by deeming if the arm position in a given situation was to be expected, also including arm position with respect to the opposition player), 3) if hand is raised above the shoulder (in which case handball is always given), 4) distance of the ball from the arm and time which the player has to avoid touching it with his arm (position is considered first, then the time and distance), 5) the effect of ball striking the player's arm.
Regarding cm-mm-scale offsides it was highlighted that the lines of Hawk-Eye system introduced this season to replace prior season's MediaPro are reliable and the Committee's position is that even those cm-scale offsides are interpreted as 'clear' situations that need to be resolved. There is no margin for letting a given offside go, and even those tiniest ones must be given.
There was a question on retired referees who are occasionally placed in the VAR rooms for consultation and the response is that IFAP permits it, but it is only allowed in cases where retired refs have not been away from the game for too long. The Spanish Arbitration Committee will continue to invite such officials after they decide to retire.
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