Refs and VAR at the World Cup

A lot of dangerous tackles going unpunished too, it's great wanting to keep players on the pitch and not brandish a load of yellows but that Romero one on Mbappe was horrible. Rabiot also had a bad one.
 
The lack of letting the play on when a couple of counters were one is what annoys me the most
France can be pretty aggrieved at that.
At least twice he didn’t let play continue after an obvious foul when France would have been 3 on 3.
Did pretty well apart from that, but not booking (at least) otamendi for the penalty foul was very strange
 
I know this can be confusing, but fouling your opponent in the box ususally is punished with a penalty. Happy to help. Soft as feck, yeah

No need to be a dickhead, was just asking if there's any image/video etc. of a touch even. I've seen it like 3 times and still don't see any touch.
 
No need to be a dickhead, was just asking if there's any image/video etc. of a touch even. I've seen it like 3 times and still don't see any touch.
Gotcha :cool:

White text and kidding aside, think it was a debatable decision and VAR wouldn't have intervened for either ruling. Dembele clips him after Di Maria trips himself
 
The one on Di Maria is probably just about a penalty. Slightly soft, sure, but just about enough. He clearly clips him while Di Maria is already past him and running at pace, so it's enough to unbalance a player. I can see some refs turning down those calls, but no one should have major complaints with it.

I'm more annoyed with the hand ball penalty, but that's a problem with the rule, not with the ref's call. At least they're consistently given. Still feels wrong.

The only things you can say he definitely messed up were a couple of times he really should've given advantage to France instead of blowing the whistle early. On balance, a decent enough refereeing performance.
 
The one on Di Maria is probably just about a penalty. Slightly soft, sure, but just about enough. He clearly clips him while Di Maria is already past him and running at pace, so it's enough to unbalance a player. I can see some refs turning down those calls, but no one should have major complaints with it.

I'm more annoyed with the hand ball penalty, but that's a problem with the rule, not with the ref's call. At least they're consistently given. Still feels wrong.

The only things you can say he definitely messed up were a couple of times he really should've given advantage to France instead of blowing the whistle early. On balance, a decent enough refereeing performance.

It looked like a nailed on penalty in real time, so it’s obvious why the ref gave it. And VAR didn’t prove him conclusively wrong. So I don’t see how anyone can complain about that one.
 
Manuel Gräfe fired some shots on Twitter.

He claimed that when in doubt the referees favoured certain individual players, but also South American teams in general. He also wrote that there were never fewer red cards, for political reasons/pressure from Infantino.

He also complained that rules were disproportionately ignored (red cards for DOGSO, second yellow cards not given). According to him there were a few very good performances from e.g. Orsato and Ramos, but many more mediocre or outright weak.
 
Manuel Gräfe fired some shots on Twitter.

He claimed that when in doubt the referees favoured certain individual players, but also South American teams in general. He also wrote that there were never fewer red cards, for political reasons/pressure from Infantino.

He also complained that rules were disproportionately ignored (red cards for DOGSO, second yellow cards not given). According to him there were a few very good performances from e.g. Orsato and Ramos, but many more mediocre or outright weak.

The red card thing is interesting. Did any player get sent off at all? I know one of the Dutch players was sent off during the shoot out but is this the first World Cup without any red card in normal time?
 
The red card thing is interesting. Did any player get sent off at all? I know one of the Dutch players was sent off during the shoot out but is this the first World Cup without any red card in normal time?

No. Wales GK was given a straight red, Aboubakar and Cheddira both given second yellows in stoppage time of the 90. There were only 4 at the last WC too.
 
And that was only after VAR. Ref initially gave a yellow for him brogue kicking the bloke in the face 10 yards outside his box.
It feels like refs just take the safe option in real time with the knowledge that VAR will ask them to take a second look if it's serious enough. My gut feeling says that would lead to fewer red cards, as only the most blatant cases get a second look. Not sure if the stats (beyond this tournament) support that.
 
Thread title change or new thread?...

In the two games so far VAR has been fast and kept the game flowing. Obviously there will be some big decisions to come which will take a little more looking at but it's not stolen the show for anything dodgy... Yet.