Controversial intervention – the video assistant is already well known
Referee frustration at BVB – “He couldn’t be talked to”
After the Champions League exit, BVB is struggling with the referee’s decisions. Marius Wolf had stopped a cross with his hand. Danny Makkelie awarded a penalty and had it retaken because players ran into the penalty area too early.
Borussia Dortmund rages after the end of the Champions League over Chelsea’s penalty replay. The focus is on video assistant Pol van Boekel. It is not the first time that the Dutchman has made a debatable decision.
Dhe bandwidth at BVB ranged from incomprehension to the scent of a “tangible scandal.” There is no question that Chelsea’s repeated penalty, which ultimately led to the 2-0 and thus Dortmund’s exit in the round of 16 of the Champions League, was a scene that decided the game . Crucially involved: the Dutch video assistant Pol van Boekel.
As soon as the penalty kick was taken, the question arose as to whether the decision not to penalize Marius Wolf’s handball was so wrong that van Boekel was allowed to report to referee Danny Makkelie. Because the intention of the Dortmund right-back, who turned away and was shot from a short distance, can hardly be assumed. Only the enlargement of the body surface with the arm spread speaks against a wolf. The experts from “Collinas Erben” come to the conclusion that the penalty that Makkelie imposed according to the pictures is “at least a reasonable decision”.
Which leaves the question of whether it was right to repeat the penalty kick that Kai Havertz hit the post in the first attempt. In terms of rules, the simple answer is yes. If both teams commit an offense (e.g. by running into the penalty area too early), the penalty kick is repeated, regardless of the outcome. So easy, so good.
What the IFAB’s VAR Protocol says
But it’s not easy, after all, this is where van Boekel comes into play again. It was he who pointed Makkelie to the players in the sixteen around Chelsea’s Ben Chilwell and Dortmund’s Salih Özcan. Only then was it decided to repeat. An error according to the VAR protocol of the IFAB rulers. It says: The VAR intervenes when a defender who runs too early prevents an attacker from playing the ball and thus prevents a possible goal. That was not the case with Özcan, who cleared the ball.
The conclusion of DFB rules expert Lutz Wagner: “If Makkelie had decided to repeat the penalty directly, everything would have gone correctly. However, the VAR should not have intervened for the reasons mentioned.”
It is the continuation of a not very creditable series by van Boekel – VAR (non) interventions from the categories strange, questionable or simply wrong. The Dutchman is now as experienced as he is well-known in the football world, not only because he is in the history books anyway, as the first VAR to ever intervene in a professional football game. That was in 2016. The referee at the cup game in the Netherlands back then: Danny Makkelie.
Germany did not get a hand penalty in the European Championship final
At last year’s Women’s European Championship, van Boekel – himself referee in the Eredivisie as the second referee – drew double the anger as VAR. Unless you have kept it with the victorious hosts from England. In the quarter-finals against Spain, for example, there was actually a rugby-like foul before the English women equalised. It was not punished. In the end England won. Or in the final, when he acted as second VAR behind the Italian Paolo Valeri and was therefore part of the team that denied the Germans a hand penalty. In the end England won.
You can also sing a song by van Boekel at FC Barcelona. In the Champions League group stage, the 47-year-old sat in front of the screens twice while the Catalans struggled with little success on the pitch. Against Bayern on Matchday 2 when Ousmane Dembelé didn’t get a penalty after a touch from Alphonso Davies. Final score: 0:2. But especially against Inter Milan, when van Boekel first allowed the equalizer to be withdrawn after a handball by Ansu Fati and then Barça denied a penalty in added time after a similar situation – this time a handball by Inter defender Denzel Dumfries. Final score: 0:1. Barcelona said goodbye to the Champions League.
The two players were the focus of the game between Inter and Barcelona: Denzel Dumfries (right) and Ansu Fati
Quelle: pa/ZUMAPRESS.com/Nderim Kaceli
The same fate now befell BVB, where several officials had unsurprisingly declared the Makkelie/Van Boekel alliance, which is often used internationally, as a scapegoat.
