“The standard of hands has not changed”

This Tuesday the Technical Committee of Referees presented in Riyadh the semi-automatic offside system. One of the great novelties of this Spanish Super Cup and which had the presence of the president of the CTA, Luis Medina Cantalejo in addition to Carlos Clos Gomez, Director of VAR in Spain. A technology already used in the Champions League and already used in the World Cup in Qatar. As this is an RFEF competition, who will decide on its use in the two semifinals as well as the final next Sunday in Riyadh.

There were 17 referees who traveled to Riyadh to act as main referees, collegiate quarters, VAR referees, etc. where they met this morning.

Luis Medina Cantalejo hopes that “the system is agile and fast“and face the League “is not up to us. We totally agree. From now on we will follow the path of the part that should put money but ours we think it will be good”. For Clos “this is a pioneer in a domestic competition and it will speed up the decision-making where VAR can come in. In a few seconds you will know that exact way of hitting the ball“. In the semifinals and final they will have close to 37 cameras.

But there is no doubt the issue of hands is the one that focuses on the whole intervention and where Luis Medina makes that clear “The standard hasn’t changed at all. Then every week there are debatable plays. logically there is hits and misses“.

Regarding the words of Javier Tebas that he does not understand the hands and his doubts about them and the VAR body, Cantalejo showed his surprise for the doubts of anyone who comes: “If there is any doubt, we will clarify. Right now we have five and six professional VAR referees. We are working on concepts. And in addition, the field referee must have a major role on the field of play”. In this regard, Clos clarified that these specific VAR referees “double every day (two games per day) and 80% of performances during the season from VAR they do them”.

Medina insisted that “If there is any doubt, we are open to clarify it.. This weekend, we did a lot of checking and communication from the CTA to the referee whether it was right or not. Of course we are clear about the dynamics of a player’s support, if the ball is raining. But we talk about that with our referees. The standard has not changed and there is a high level of hits”.

It does not eliminate, according to the president of the arbitral body himself, “that have very complex handss. This year, backhands are allowed. If you jump with your arm outstretched and it hits you, consider yourself punished! Those hands must be punished. That’s shocking.”

He is very satisfied with the level of performance this season, although he acknowledges that “we can always improve in the spirit of self-criticism. The percentages are very difficult. The level of hits is higher than the level of mistake but error always sells more“.

“There is no magisterial or Martian formula”

Luis Medina admitted that the “rule is very complicated because when they are clear there is no problem but when they are grey, it generates a lot of controversy. There is no master formula and Martian for this”. In this regard, Clos Gómez, director of VAR, provided information that they are 1,600 hands checked So far this season in First and Second. An average of two hands per game. And according to the VAR director “16 hands missed the season, 8 in the First Division and 8 in the Second Division. It’s a very low percentage.”

Clos remembered, about his hands villarrealthat “every play on the spot is reviewed and called for a clear and obvious error. By error or omission. In the first case, the VAR detected an error in Villarreal and in the second it did not.“.

In this matter, Luis Medina concluded by recalling that the the final decision is always the referee field even if the VAR is called to check an action on the monitor. “VAR colleagues are there to help you but if you go to the monitor and it’s clear to you that you made the right decision and for you it’s not a serious mistake, there’s no reason to change it.”

In defense of Mateu Lahoz

in the role of Matthew, confirmed that he will not be in Riyadh because the CTA policy is to pay attention to all referees and this year the referees who were not in the last edition have traveled. Regarding his performance, Medina has made it clear that “judging a referee in public seems not fair to me. We have talked about what we should talk about, not now but last year we made it clear what we expect from referee. He is a good referee that he has now overcome his march to the World Cup, which has been difficult. As for the cards, I still remember the 18 drawn by López Nieto.”

about a possible refrigerator After his performance in the Catalan derby, the CTA president was forceful in declaring that “we will do what we have to do, but last week he didn’t whistle because a referee didn’t repeat. Nothing like that has ever happened”. They also received no decision from Mateu de rwithdraw from arbitration “The other thing is at the end of the season.”

The appearance has ended up making it clear that the referees are not expected to appear after each match: “Unless I change or leave, no, because it subjects him to a summary trial.”