Colombia. The realization of the VAR Media Day, an event in which Wilson Seneme, President of the Conmebol Referees Commission explained to journalists how the video arbitration system works, was the previous to the premiere of this system in the South American Cup.
The match chosen to premiere the VAR was between Colombian teams Santa Fe and Deportivo Cali, in the first leg of the quarterfinals of the tournament, which takes place in Bogotá. The day included a tour of the VOR, Video Operations Room.
Seneme emphasized that "we seek to see elephants not ants. VAR is used to help in clear situations, obvious mistakes, it does not seek to achieve 100% accuracy for all decisions, there is no intention to interfere with the essential flow and emotions of football."
During the meeting, the President of the CONMEBOL Referees Commission dedicated himself to clarifying all possible doubts about the Video Arbitration Assistance System and reviewing the only four situations in which the VAR referee can resort to video arbitration:
- Goals (Offside position in the creation of the goal, infraction by the attacking team in the creation of the goal, offside ball prior to the goal and goal / no goal).
- Red card incidents (VAR avoids clearly erroneous decisions regarding the expulsion of a player; reviews are limited to direct ejections and not to second yellow card warning; VAR observes a lack of expulsion that was not detected by the referee).
- Decisions in penalties (The VAR avoids clearly erroneous decisions regarding the granting or not, of a penalty kick; penalty incorrectly charged; penalty not charged; foul or offside prior to the play of the penalty, committed by the attacking team; ball off the field before the play of the penalty).
- Confusion of identity (If the referee wrongly admonishes or ejects a player, VAR helps the referee know who the player is correctly).
VAR is a tool that is here to stay," concluded Wilson Seneme.
