Victor Gomes has been sucked into the debate that has generated global interest following the VAR controversy in the match that he officiated in the FIFA World Cup on Thursday.
Gomes’ initial call was to disallow the winning goal by Ao Tanaka six minutes into the second but was overruled by a tight call from VAR led by Mexican Fernando Guerrero.
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FIFA’s new tracking technology cannot be used to determine the ball being in or out of play and so VAR used goal-line cameras to make the decision which proved that a small fraction of the ball was hugging the line.
This then gave the VAR enough evidence to overturn the decision made by Gomes that ignited a wave of debates with FIFA not providing guidance to inform fans on their VAR decisions.
After Gomes had ruled out the goal there as a long VAR check and fans accused VAR of creating controversy with their decisions again at this World Cup following other questionable decisions which included the penalty awarded to Argentina in their win over Poland.
Spanish football publication AS led with the headline ‘The world of football in shock: nobody understood how Japan’s goal was validated’.
‘The ball seemed to have clearly crossed the baseline, but the VAR estimated otherwise’ points out the publication which rivals Marca.
The incident happened in the Ao Tanaka scoring from Kaoru Mitoma’s cross.
"It is the most controversial play of the World Cup so far.
"The whole of Spain did not believe that Nakata's work of 2-1 in Japan was validated.
"After several minutes in the VAR room, the referee finally conceded the goal to the general surprise.
"In the broadcast it was not possible to see all the shots that can be seen in the video at the top of this news item.
"In the four shots provided by FIFA, there is only one shot from the area that leaves a trace of doubt that the ball did not cross the baseline.
"In the other three it seems very clear that the ball does come out completely.
"The validity of this goal has meant that Spain passed as second in their group and face Morocco in the round of 16 and also left Germany out of the World Cup for the second time in a row at the first exchange,” reads the report on the incident.
English publication Daily Mail led with the headline…’Surely VAR has failed again’.
"Fans and pundits question whether the ball went out of play before Japan’s winner in thrilling 2-1 win against Spain…which sent Germany crashing OUT of World Cup”.
The Daily Mail highlighted how the controversial made for huge debate.
Several other media outlets expressed their reservations on the incident.
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