I was struck by Silva’s withdrawal to the locker room at half-time debating with Munuera about his hand. He was no longer going anywhere, Remiro had been stopped by the penalty, but Silva obsessively argued with Munuera, who firmly countered him. Obviously, what today’s arbitration (the fashionable holy man, Mateu Lahoz, was in the VOR room, so ‘magister dixit’) considers handy is not in many cases for footballers. Time and time again they are surprised with penalties for a blow (or even a brush) on a hand that they have in the position to which their natural movement has led, not a malicious intention to place it that way.
For my part, I have already resigned myself to whatever comes to mind and to whoever God gives it to, Saint Peter blesses it. If Silva, with the car that she carries, she can’t understand it, who could? Yes, the prevailing style among the VAR referees makes me angry, so chicken sexers to discover innocent hands or annul goals for offside by the hair of a shrimp and so careless for more important plays, such as the tremendous and serious entry consequences of Víctor Ruiz on Ruiz de Galarreta in Betis-Mallorca. A violent entrance from behind with a final slash with the other leg. The balance was a stretcher for Galarreta and yellow for Víctor Ruiz.
For Galarreta the play has meant the third break of the crusader. Who knows when he will play again, but Soto Grado left him in yellow. It is permissible for a referee to misperceive the dimension of a live play; even a blink can lower the perception of it. But that Estrada Fernández, who saw it repeated on TV from various angles, let him go leaves me stunned.. The best game that could be taken from VAR would be to persecute (and thereby prevent) these barbarities. But with the VAR, arbitration has been lost in a forest of details and nonsense such as the impossible cataloging of hands and has forgotten the essential.