The president of the Portuguese Association of Football Referees (APAF), Luciano Gonçalves, this Thursday stressed the importance of the video referee (VAR), disagreed with the call for foreign referees to officiate national matches and favored revealing the audio.
On the sidelines of the annual days of the Portuguese professional football league, which takes place in Braga, the director stressed that in practice the dialogue between the main players in Portuguese football “has not happened with the speed or effectiveness that anyone would find desirable” until its pacification.
“The referees see the VAR as an added value, this is inevitable. There are processes that need to be improved, more and more training is needed, but those who really love football and sports cannot say that the VAR did not help.” There are growing pains that can only be overcome with everyone’s openness and will. That’s what referees have to do, work harder, train more and try to get rid of more and more mistakes, that’s what we ask of referees, also ask for understanding from everyone else involved”he said.
FC Porto president Jorge Nuno Pinto da Costa asked for the end of VAR after the ‘dragon’ home defeat to Gil Vicente (2-1) in the last round of the First League, prompting an APAF announcement to the Disciplinary Board (CD) of the Portuguese Football Federation (FPF), but Luciano Gonçalves noted that he is not personalizing the issue.
“It has nothing to do with Pinto da Costa, with Rui Costa [presidente do Benfica]Frederic Varandas [presidente do Sporting] or Antonio Salvador [presidente do Sporting de Braga], has to do with the seriousness and suitability of people being questioned, we cannot condone that. In the last three rounds there are situations from three different clubs, but that makes us completely indifferent. Our procedure, since 2016, when we cross some points, is to send it to the DC and he decides”he said.
The leader of the referees stressed that “criticism is a part” and that it is necessary to “accept it naturally”, although he noted that “suspicions that endanger people’s honor cannot be raised”.
“If criticism is expressed calmly and politely, then we only grow from it, because there is no referee who likes to be talked down for a week because a game went badly”he said.
Luciano Gonçalves also revealed that he was against calling foreign referees for matches in national competitions.
“I do not agree. It makes sense if it is an exchange or training exchange, but it can never be foreign referees who come to referee our matches. None. Today we heard that we will have two Cypriot referees in the two main matches of the II League. It makes no sense. We come from countries outside the big 5that we are called up more often for European competitions”he said.
Luciano Gonçalves also revealed that he was in favor of publishing the VAR audios, after revealing that the Arbitration Board very recently submitted this request to the International Council, which was rejected.
“We will continue to work to make this happen because we defend that all the more transparently [for o processo]better,” he said.
As for the idea of having only ex-referees in the VAR, Luciano Gonçalves noted that this was not possible at first, but that there will be changes “certainly in the near future”.
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Source: DN
