Former FIFA referee and VAR instructor Jerome Damon has provided some clarity on the disallowed Yanga SC ‘goal’ against Mamelodi Sundowns.
Young Africans thought they had broken the deadlock in the 57th minute of the CAF Champions League quarterfinal match at Loftus Stadium on Friday night. Stephane Aziz Ki unleashed a thunderous strike that rocketed under the crossbar. It appeared to bounce over the goal line, leaving goalkeeper Ronwen Williams bemused.
However, after a VAR check, Dahane Beida from Mauritius maintained his ‘no goal decision’. The call sparked controversy and left many fans scratching their heads.
Damon has shed light on the factors that likely influenced the VAR team’s decision to maintain the initial no-goal call.
WHAT JEROME DAMONE SAID ON THE DISALLOWED YANGA ‘GOAL’
“With VAR, there’s always a first decision and it’s the on-field decision,” he explained on SABC. “The on-field decision at the time was that there was no goal.”
“The first thing that would have happened was the on-field decision. The on-field decision was that there was no goal. So, then VAR would then be given all the angles available to check whether the on-field decision was obviously wrong.
“That is the protocol of VAR, to check if the decision was obviously wrong. It means if there were 32 cameras, they would have been given all the angles to see which angle would be the best to overturn the decision.
“So they had then concluded that there wasn’t a conclusive angle. Remember the law clearly states that the whole of the ball must cross the goal line between the upright and beneath the crossbar for it to be a goal.”
Highlighting the limitations of television replays, Damon referenced the 2022 FIFA World Cup match between Japan and Germany. While television footage suggested the ball had crossed the line entirely, a top-down view revealed a portion remained in play.
“As much as we can speculate, to overturn an on-field decision, there must be conclusive evidence that the refereeing team on the field had gotten it completely wrong. VAR, using all technology available, concluded that they were not completely wrong. They can’t say they were completely correct, but because they did not have the angle to show that the entire ball had crossed the goal line, the on-field decision stood, which was no goal.”
GOAL LINE TECHNOLOGY WOULD HAVE BEEN MORE ACCURATE ON THE DISALLOWED YANGA ‘GOAL’
He believes the only technology which would have been conclusive is “the goal line technology”. “Now in FIFA competitions, we use goal line technology and we use VAR concurrently for this precise situation…goal line technology would be most accurate in this situation.”
Meanwhile, the Tanzanian giants have accused the match officials of unfairly influencing their defeat to Sundowns. They have filed an official protest with CAF alleging match-fixing.
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