Yellow card for refereeing! Since the start of the season, tensions and misunderstandings have multiplied between the various players on the grounds of Ligue 1 and Ligue 2. Not a day goes by without an arbitration error being pointed out, that a controversy arises. . If the technical direction of the arbitration welcomes the use of the VAR, it is the only one. The pact of confidence between Pascal Garibian, technical director of refereeing (DTA), and the leaders of the League seems to have been shattered. The latter would also have tried to oust the first. To remedy this situation and ease tensions, a working group on arbitration, headed by Jean-Pierre Rivère, the president of Nice, was set up within the Football League.
According to information from the newspaper L’Équipe, a first meeting, bringing together representatives of the League, the Federation and the referees, was held on October 12, a second is already scheduled for mid-November. “In general, arbitration is unanimous against him, we explain to the LFP. It does not work. During the first meeting, everyone agreed on this observation. We want to put everything back on track. One speaker even speaks of “a state within a state” to refer to the arbitral body.
Several projects have thus been launched by this working group. “We pay, we are aware of nothing and the Federation (in charge of arbitration) is not aware of much either, continues this source of the LFP in the columns of L’Équipe. Several problems have been identified. The first is the lack of dialogue and the opacity of the system in promotions, relegations or referees assignments. The second concerns VAR. How to improve it? (…) The third question is financial. French refereeing is expensive (24 M € paid this season by the League, including 16.3 for the payment of referees, 5.9 for the VAR and 1.8 for the goal-line technology). The number of internships invoiced is too high. We get the impression that the idea is to make top athletes from referees. The goal should not be to have them run the 100 meters in 10 seconds. It would take more psychology and less running. Finally, our desire to obtain explanations of the decisions taken through the sound system. Which would also calm the players. “
The project promises to be immense.
