The quarter-finals in the UNIQA ÖFB Cup had a lot to offer.
There was also no shortage of excitement surrounding various bad whistles and (unfortunately no) VAR deployments. The early exclusion from WAC against Salzburg certainly contributed to the defending champions from Wolfsberg falling by the wayside in the round of the best eight clubs.
But not everyone sees it that way.
Looking back on the VAR Austria platform – VAR checks from the ADMIRAL Bundesliga and the UNIQA ÖFB Cup are listed on the channel – three scenes are all resolved as correct procedures, which caused lively discussions not only among the players and supervisors at the weekend.
Once again, either the attentive reader and football enthusiast is missing the point of view, or the authors of the resolution are simply wrong. We would like to know who at VAR Austria writes the opinion on the scenes mentioned.
SCR Altach against Sturm Graz
The observer can certainly “understand” the decisions in Altach against Sturm – that is the term for the explanation on the official VAR website.
But a small footnote remains. In the case of yellow-red, the VAR is not allowed to intervene at all, as this may create false “hopes for the future”.
So what does this example do on the recon platform?
Key scene in Wolfsberg
The red card against Wolfsberger Diabate in the game between title defenders RZ Pellets WAC and Red Bull Salzburg was already questioned by the ORF commentator during the live broadcast.
In the break analysis, Herbert Prohaska and Roman Mählich agreed that there was no foul offense and that the exclusion was wrong.
The lack of VAR intervention has been criticized from all sides. The majority of the public also agreed with this opinion, as did referee experts from home and abroad (the latter were from LAOLA1 asked for their opinion via the video).
There was also largely no agreement in the forums.
However, VAR Austria is steadfastly fighting for the correctness of this decision with a simple reason: “The VAR did not intervene because the referee’s decision was understandable.”
Does this mean that there was a foul offense and if so, which one exactly? We are left in amazement.
Satire or is it serious?
In the past there have been resolutions and explanations on “VAR Austria” of scenes that could probably have been written by the satirical magazine “Die Tagespresse”.
Be careful, dear colleagues from the “Tagespresse”, competition is growing here without them labeling themselves as such.
The hunt for points in the spring hasn’t even begun yet, and mistakes are already being glossed over and not honestly resolved. Things can get even brighter in the coming weeks and months.
Finally: If we believe “VAR Austria”, the last training for the video referees took place in July 2023. Maybe it would be time again to provide additional training.
