UEFA referees chief: Scotland penalty declare was ‘simply bodily contact’ | Euro 2024

UEFA has defended its choice to disclaim Scotland a penalty of their essential defeat by Hungary, saying “bodily contact” triggered midfielder Stuart Armstrong to fall to the bottom.

These statements come within the wake of express criticism by Scotland coach, Steve Clarke, of the choice of Argentine referee Facundo Tello. Clarke claimed it was “100% punishment” and demanded a proof from officers.

Roberto Rossetti, UEFA’s managing director of refereeing, stated on Friday that Tello’s refereeing had been checked and supported by VAR.

He stated: “When Armstrong was in entrance of the Hungarian, when you watched from the rear digicam, there was motion of the attacker in the direction of the Hungarian.” “After all VAR examined this example… and determined that this was simply bodily contact. That is what occurred on the pitch.”

Rossetti stated the choice to not award a penalty was “controversial” however could possibly be in comparison with an incident a minute earlier when Tello didn’t take a penalty kick for John McGinn pulling his shirt within the Scotland penalty space. “Earlier [would have gone] “For Hungary, second for Scotland,” he stated.

Rosetti additionally commented on the VAR intervention that was closely scrutinized by English officers throughout the Netherlands vs. France match. It took nearly three minutes for VAR Stuart Attwell to verify an offside name on the pitch in opposition to Dutchman Denzel Dumfries, disallowing Xavi Simons’ purpose.

Rossetti stated of the choice: “It isn’t straightforward, as a result of the VAR dominated out two doable offside instances, then the potential of affect on the goalkeeper, then the potential of earlier contact. Then we will add that we’re within the European Championship and stress is stress. We help this choice. We at all times help Accuracy, whereas we work to hurry up overview choices.”

Rosetti revealed figures that confirmed VAR choices have been being made sooner than within the Champions League, and stated the semi-automated offside know-how was “working very nicely”. VAR made 20 corrections to on-field choices in 36 group stage matches, taking a mean of 51 seconds in comparison with 56 seconds within the Champions League. The common time for a semi-automated offside choice was 46 seconds in comparison with 58 seconds within the membership competitors.

One other set of information helps referees’ dedication to clamp down on cynical fouls, with 35 yellow playing cards given for “stopping promising assaults” in contrast with 9 by this time three years in the past. The variety of bookings for dissent has additionally risen from 10 to 19.