Why is it important to have VAR? Slavia’s last two games in Europe illustrate it beautifully

Thursday’s match between Slavia and Feyenoord (3::3) was affected by two incorrect decisions of the head referee, which once again gave rise to a discussion about why there is no VAR in the Conference Europa League. And it wasn’t the first match of Slavia in which video was missing.

In the return leg against Linz, Slavia paid the price for the absence of VAR. In the 85th minute they were in control of the proceedings, despite Aiham Ousou’s first-half sending-off they led 7-3 on aggregate, but suddenly the head referee showed Srdjan Plavsic a straight red card for a less than brutal foul.

The Slavija management regretted the sending off for three reasons. The replay revealed that it was not a red foul, Susians lost the game 3: 4 with two casualties and lost points in the coefficient and most importantly Plavsic got a two-match penalty for the sending off.

This was a big blow for Jindřich Trpišovský, because if it wasn’t for Oscar Dorley’s recovery, he wouldn’t have had a left-back available for the double against Feyenoord due to the absence of video referees.

So the Red and Whites flew to the Netherlands with only fourteen full players, yet at half-time they were playing 1-1. Peter Olayinka scored for Slavia, but the goal should not have stood due to an apparent offside by Yira Sor.

The Lajna referee didn’t notice anything and the atmosphere on the pitch and in the stands became thicker. The home players rightly felt aggrieved, leading to a half-time skirmish between the two benches. Olayinka was even grabbed under the neck by one of Feyenoord’s coaches.

After the change of sides, VAR was again missed by the Slavs. Tomas Holeš was fouled in the whitewash, but Turkish referee Halil Umut Meler did not rule the tackle illegal. Compensation for the mistake from the first half? Quite possibly.

One has to wonder if VAR is really so expensive and unaffordable to be missing in the third most prestigious club cup competition? And if so, isn’t it the right thing to do to buy it into the EKL at least for the last three rounds of the playoffs.

Source: UEFA Europa Conference League