Brazilian VAR: First impressions
Last week’s first legs of Copa Continental do Brasil quarter-finals were a milestone for brazilian football. The four clashes marked the debut of the Video Assistant Referee (VAR) system in a south american domestic tournament.
The technology came to action on Wednesday. Referees received information but decided to no review their decisions on Santos-Cruzeiro and Corinthians-Chapecoense.
Much more job on Thursday. Late encounter showed up the first ever decision reviewed by VAR in Brazil. In the second half of Bahia-Palmeiras draw, Verdao’s winger Arthur suffered a fault in the penalty area. Anderson Daronco whistled penalty and sent off the homeside midfielder Gregore.
Advised by VAR team, Daronco resorted to the screen to cancel the red card acoording to latest International Football Association Board recommendations. But only 6 minutes and 4 seconds after. Only then did the captain Bruno Henrique finally and wasted the penalty kick for the Paulistas.
And criticism came up.
Few minutes on and former Alavés striker Deyverson jumps to the ball with tricolor fullback Mena who drops bleeding. This time VAR alerts by audio that Deyverson move his elbow and hit chilean’s eyebrow. The forward was sent off 42 seconds after. However, he took 3 more minutes to leave the field.
Two right decisions. Good enough to a first time. In this case, VAR helped to correct wrong actions in red card incidents.
Six minutes is too much if we compare to VAR system used this summer in Fifa World Cup. The video-based decisions in Russia took an 80 seconds average.
It gets worse considering that 9 minutes in the additional time awarded by the referee are equivalent only to the decision making process and the excluded player refuses to go to the locker room. Where did the time spent with substitutions and medical care go?
Going beyond we have structural questions. The Brazilian version of the VAR is considered lean. Only 14 to 16 cameras are used to reduce expenses. In the World Cup were between 33 and 35 cameras.
In the Copa Continental the system costs 11,7 thousand euros per game, according to Rodrigo Mattos. The value is the same offered to clubs by the Brazilian Football Confederation at the beginning of the year. The proposal was that the home team should bear the operating expenses in each game of the present edition of Brasileirao Assaí Serie A.
At first CBF would pay to have the VAR in the national cup that in 2018 will yield a record reward up to 15,6 million euros. The champion also guarantees a place in the next Conmebol Libertadores Bridgestone group stage.
Announced at the last minute, the sponsorship deal with SEMP TCL covered the system’s 163,2 thousand euros budget for the 14 matches in which it will be used in the competition. The Brazilian-Chinese joint venture already sponsors the uniforms of the refereeing teams in CBF tournaments. The company also activated the World Cup period with ad campaigns starring Paris Saint Germain and Selecao Neymar Jr.
Another issue are the images used by the system. All footage is generated by Globo and Fox Sports, owners of the rights of transmission.
“Do you use the transmission cameras? Are they all? What if the VAR does not have a take and the transmission shows the error? Let’s wait. To complete, the difference with FIFA and leagues is that there they generate the images, here is not the CBF but a broadcaster.”, questions former FIFA referee and ESPN Brasil analyst, Sálvio Spínola (via Lance).
