São Paulo director slams VAR over missed penalty: "No excuse" | OneFootball

São Paulo’s Director of Football, Rui Costa, asked to speak before coach Hernán Crespo’s press conference on Sunday night. The executive saw an uncalled penalty and criticized the refereeing, especially the VAR, after the Tricolor team’s elimination to Palmeiras, 2-1, in the semifinals of the Campeonato Paulista.

The incident in question happened five minutes into the second half, when the score was still 1-0 for Palmeiras. Lucas Moura crossed the ball and it hit Gustavo Gómez’s arm inside the box. São Paulo’s players appealed for a penalty, but referee Daiane Muniz was not even called to the VAR booth to review the possible infraction.

“Complaining about refereeing is not something we should trivialize, because it is a human activity. There will always be mistakes, it’s a human issue. What I’m doing here is not complaining about the refereeing because I lost the game. We are complaining about a match that was balanced and at that moment, if a penalty is called—which was obvious, there’s no interpretation—the game could have been different, or I could be here having qualified. I wasn’t given that opportunity, because there was a definitive mistake in the process. Today’s mistake has no justification whatsoever. I repeat, the non-use of VAR has no justification in our view,” said Rui Costa.

The executive made it clear that the complaint was not directed at Daiane Muniz, but rather at the refereeing team as a whole, who did not recommend a review of the play. Thiago Duarte Peixoto was in charge of the VAR.

“This week I was at the FPF and, by coincidence, Daiane was right in front of me. I told her: ‘I congratulate you in person not because I was a winner, but because you refereed like in the Premier League, maturely, respecting the game’s timing.’ And I believe today she did something very similar. Therefore, this is not a complaint aimed at a referee who may be the one who has evolved the most in her work. However, she is not alone. Football has evolved, the dynamics of the game have evolved,” emphasized the executive.

“It is not possible that VAR did not recommend that she at least have the privilege of checking, five times, ten times, seventy times, that it would be a penalty. And in a match like this, where two competent teams face off in a single-elimination game, the referee’s decision becomes absolutely relevant. That’s why we cannot accept this happening in such an important match. We knew we could reach the final. We cannot make this something common and normal,” continued the executive.

The Match

Palmeiras opened the scoring seven minutes into the match with Mauricio. In the second half, just minutes after São Paulo appealed for the penalty, Alviverde scored the second goal with Flaco López. In the 20th minute, Daiane Muniz called a penalty on Marlon Freitas, after the midfielder hit Bobadilla in the face with his elbow. Rui Costa even admitted that the penalty awarded to São Paulo could be debated.

“The principle of VAR is minimal intervention, but in both incidents it must intervene. For me, and I admit this without any problem, the Bobadilla incident could be discussed or interpreted, even though there was an elbow movement. And in the handball incident, the ball hit the opponent’s arm, it’s a penalty. And if you have to call three or four penalties in a match because of this movement, then you have to call them. I don’t see any similarity between the two incidents,” explained the director.

Crespo avoids commenting on refereeing

After Rui Costa’s statement, coach Hernán Crespo finally gave his press conference. When asked about the refereeing, he chose not to elaborate and dodged the question.

“No, you already know. Or things happen like what happened at Morumbis, which was scandalous. I don’t talk about refereeing. That’s the game. I think the images speak for themselves, it touches the hand. She, together with VAR, chose not to see it that way. That’s it,” said the coach.

Upcoming São Paulo Matches

This article was translated into English by Artificial Intelligence. You can read the original version in 🇧🇷 here.