The 29th day of Ligue 1, concluded on Sunday April 2, was marked by a controversy around two hands in the surface, in Paris and Marseille, with different consequences.
Two games, two hands in the box and two different decisions. Friday March 31, during the 29th day of Ligue 1, the Montpellier Mamadou Sakho was sanctioned with a penalty for a hand in the area against Marseille (1-1). Two days later, Sunday April 2, the same mishap happened to Lyonnais Dejan Lovren in OL’s victory over PSG (1-0), but this time the referee did not award a penalty. Two situations which recall the recurring incomprehension of the actors and observers of the game in the face of different arbitration decisions, from one week to another, for a comparable gesture.
“When you whistle a hand one weekend and not the next for an identical gesture, it’s hard for players“, asks Jérôme Alonzo, consultant for Radio France. “You have to understand that arbitration remains a human activity and that to arbitrate, by definition, is to interpret, tempers Bruno Derrien, former international football referee. But for the decisions to be better accepted, we must try to tend towards a form of standardization.
In fact, the referee of PSG-Lyon, François Letexier, relied on the help of his assistants in charge of video arbitration (VAR). After a quick check, the man in black told the players to resume the game without having gone to view the images himself. His colleagues therefore considered that the hand was not reprehensible.
“Judging intention is very complicated”
The Ifab (“International football association board”), depository of the rules, defines what constitutes a reprehensible hand in the law of the game number 12. This warns, in the preamble, that “tAny contact between the ball and a player’s arm or hand does not necessarily constitute an offence.. Before specifying that there is a fault if a player “deliberately touches the ball with his arm or hand, for example by moving his arm or hand towards the ball; touches the ball with his arm or hand: having artificially increased the area covered by his body; scores a goal directly with his hand or arm, even accidentally (also applies to goalkeeper), or immediately after the ball has touched his arm or hand, even accidentally”.
“Judging the notion of intention is very complicated”, analyzes Bruno Derrien with reference to the first paragraph of the rule mentioned above. Regarding the increase in the surface of the body, it is just as much subject to the interpretation of each referee.
The appearance of VAR in Ligue 1 in 2018 adds to the incomprehension of the actors of French football (players, coaches, supporters, etc.) vis-à-vis decisions that are sometimes different from one meeting to another. “People need to understand that it’s a tool that helps humans make decisions, it’s not binary”explains Jérôme Alonzo, also a consultant for Amazon Prime Video, broadcaster of Ligue 1.
“They have a parachute, continues Bruno Derrien. Perhaps with VAR, there should be a reading grid for judging hands taking into account several parameters: the distance between the ball and the hand, the gap between the arm and the rest of the body, the moment from which the arm is detached…”
Former players in the VAR truck?
However, a majority of players believe that the referees do not always decide in the spirit of the game. For example, on the unsanctioned hand of Dejan Lovren on Sunday, the ball seemed to go to the far post towards Kylian Mbappé, alone in front the goal. “The fact that there is no uniformity on the hands comes from a lack of understanding of the game”assures the former PSG goalkeeper who offers to install former players alongside the VAR referees, because “they always have a better understanding of the game”he believes.
Bruno Derrien, 152 Ligue 1 games on the clock, abounds: “I think that if we want things to improve, the sense of the game, the tactics, are themes that could be addressed by coaches, in front of the referees, so that they better understand the strategies. To understand each other better and accept each other, you need to share experiences.”
The new boss of French refereeing, Antony Gautier, also said he was in favor of the referees speaking to the press after the matches. An idea that could help avoid or at least reduce misunderstandings. “I would have liked to understand the intellectual journey, in the VAR, which led to the fact of not whistling a penalty against Lyon”rightly concludes Jérôme Alonzo.