From the final whistle of PSG – Angers (3-2), last Friday, Romain Thomas, the defender of the SCO, had let his anger speak at the microphone of Amazon Prime. Angers bowed on a penalty from Mbappé (87th) for a hand from Pierrick Capelle while Mauro Icardi had sent the Angevin defender to the ground at the start of the action. Despite the use of the VAR, the refereeing body had not taken into account this fault and Mr. Dechepy had confirmed the penalty after watching the images at the edge of the lawn. “It’s amazing what’s going on. Losing here is not a shame but like that no, it is impossible. We work all week to do something clean. It’s abnormal that they don’t take the time, the referees. VAR is starting to tire me this story. We put millions in there, we don’t even know how to use it. It bothers me. Me, I am passionate, dedicated, I pay attention to what I do. There, Icardi was fouled at the start of the action, he pulled my arm, I fell and, afterwards, he played from his position to get the penalty. I’m frustrated. I’d rather take five and have them run us through the game rather than lose like that ”.
If this decision was not the only one to have led to criticism of the use of VAR, it was it that had most marked the spirits. This Wednesday, Pascal Garibian, the technical director of refereeing, finally spoke on this subject. Guest of the show “Rothen ignites”, on RMC, he assured: “It is a mistake on our part. There is no ambiguity ”. After analyzing the situation, he explains: “Unfortunately the video assistant, and he is the first unhappy one, was embarked in a tunnel effect. He detected that the hand was punishable, based on the analysis of the APP (Attacking possession phase), which consists of studying the entire start of the action. He analyzed the offside potential of Mbappé (Editor’s note: whose center for the head Icardi led to the hand of Capelle) but he did not return to the start. That is an error on our part “.
Pascal Garibian also explained: “We have nothing to hide, we share with the clubs, including the situations on which we went wrong. I had the opportunity to talk to Angers, that’s clear. We explained to the leaders of Angers the next day ”.
He also said about VAR: “We are generally satisfied. All is not perfect, but our referees are competent, they make fewer mistakes. It is undeniable, the video assistance meets the expectations but we still have to work on the image of the other championships. The video is a success. Our goal is for the referees to make as many good decisions as possible and factually we are at -20% errors. 75% of erroneous decisions have been corrected, that’s all less controversy. “
