UEFA releases statement defending the use of VAR in Schalke vs. Manchester City

UEFA has defended the use of VAR during Manchester City's Champions League win at Schalke on Wednesday night.

The system of video badistant referees was at the center of the debates during a brave first half at Gelsenkirchen, during which the hosts received two penalties, each marked by Nabil Bentaleb.

The first was awarded to handball by defender of the city, Nicolas Otamendi, after a long delay – and with the referee, Carlos del Carro, who had initially indicated a corner.

The Spanish official would change his mind though he was unable to see a recovery himself, with the monitor at the edge of the broken field.

The second occurred when Fernandinho was found guilty of a fault on Salif Sane, who was apparently in an offside position at the time.

But UEFA said in a statement that the VAR protocol had been correctly applied in both cases, despite the European governing body's own leaflets stating that such subjective decisions had to be made by means of A field examination.

They also insisted that "accuracy is more important than speed" while the situation in Germany seemed little more than embarrbading.

The UEFA statement said that a "technical problem experienced by the technical provider of the VAR" had affected the ability to render replay images on the monitor at the edge of the field, and that in in such a case, the International Football Association Board (IFAB) protocol allowed the VAR to describe to the referee what can be seen on the television broadcast (s) but does not tell him the decision that should be made. "

"The referee then makes a final decision based on his own perception and information received orally from the VAR," the statement said.

Regarding the first penalty, UEFA said: "The inability to access the reruns of the incident in the field control area has resulted in a delay in making the correct decision to award a penalty kick for a handball offense, while the VAR has orally described the situation to the referee, to allow him to make a final decision, and for the referee to then provide an explanation to the captains of both teams to clarify the circumstances surrounding the area of ​​control at the edge of the field and the decision-making process. "

The head of UEFA arbitration, Roberto Rosetti, said: "I am pleased to note that even if the referee does not have the opportunity to review the incidents on its own, the excellent cooperation of the team of officials allowed to make the right decisions.

"It should also be emphasized that, as described in the VAR protocol, accuracy is always more important than speed in making a decision.

"It is clear that last night's technical issues have had a significant impact on the time needed to make decisions, but we are fully aware that reducing the time factor is the key to VAR's success and we strive to make revisions as fast and efficient as possible.

"However, what we ultimately want are correct decisions in such situations and that's what we had yesterday."