André Villas-Boas slams referees' board: “This season was a failure” | OneFootball

André Villas-Boas intensified the discussion around domestic refereeing and put the focus on the Refereeing Council, in a reflection that brought together technology, training and decision-making criteria. The FC Porto president spoke about the urgency of standardising VAR in Portuguese stadiums, criticised the way referees have been framed and assessed, and delivered a harsh diagnosis of the season now left behind. In essence, he painted a picture of disorganisation and concluded bluntly: “This first season was an evident failure.”

At a time when the debate around refereeing continues to contaminate Portuguese football, André Villas-Boas came forward with a message grounded in reform and high standards. The FC Porto president did not limit himself to situational criticism: he attacked the technological foundation of the system, the consistency of the criteria, and the leadership model of the Refereeing Council, in an intervention with a severe and clearly structured tone.

Starting with technology, Villas-Boas pointed to a problem that, in his view, even comes before the most heated discussions about incidents and interpretations. The issue, he said, lies in the unequal resources and in the fragility of the very technical support used to make decisions.

“It is necessary to change the licensing and the requirements it involves. That is a concern that exists, also very much because of what happened with FC Porto B last season. The standardisation of VAR technology in all Portuguese stadiums is urgent; that is the first step,” he said. “But before we move on to the technological step, there needs to be standardisation of VAR technology in all stadiums. The same cameras, the same quality, the same number of cameras. And then improving the technology and the tools. So, first of all, goal-line technology and offside decisions that are semi-automated. Once those problems are overcome, the Portuguese football product also improves, there are fewer incidents in our games, and better refereeing decisions. Technology in the service of sporting truth. And not having cases like we had last year with FC Porto B, in which an obvious offside was not called because of exposure to sunlight and the positioning of the camera and the stadium columns. It is something pathetic that we have to fight against”

The Porto president then insisted on the gap between the Portuguese reality and the resources used in other leagues, linking that difference to the margin of error in decisions. The criticism, however, was not limited to the equipment: it extended to the preparation of referees and the way they develop within the structure.

“We made a lot of noise last year; now we finally have the Federation with us because, within Liga Portugal, president Pedro Proença was very receptive to our movement and now wants to make it mandatory as a driver of improvement,” he explained. “The cameras used in the Premier League to decide offsides are capable of delivering 60 frames per second. Portuguese cameras, meanwhile, are between five and ten frames to make a decision on an offside. So, it is the difference between the ball being stuck to the foot or being slightly five centimetres away. From that point on, it is much more difficult for those operating VAR technology to make decisions that are coherent. So, there is one part related to technology and another part related to the information and education of the referees themselves, which has to do with the Refereeing Council, with the referees’ own development and the way they are penalised or rewarded. We have already seen referees go from handling a Liga 2 match to being promoted to a clássico, and we have not seen consistency that properly rewards the best”

The idea is clear: for Villas-Boas, the problem does not arise only at the moment of the decision, but across the whole ecosystem that prepares it. Technology appears as the minimum condition; human consistency as the next step. And it was precisely there that he hardened his tone even further.

When the subject turned to refereeing criteria, the executive spoke of an erosion of reference points and an instability that, in his view, ended up confusing even the referees themselves. The target was the leadership of the Refereeing Council and the effect that setup had throughout the season.

“The standardisation of decision-making criteria is one of the major problems in European or world football, let’s put it that way. There is an immediate attempt to standardise criteria; that is the point I consider fundamental,” he stressed. “What happened this year since Pedro Proença took office as President of the Portuguese Football Federation? What happened was a two-headed leadership of the Refereeing Council that did not work, greater public and media exposure of the referees, with different identifications of the criteria in situations that, in our view, seem similar and that also ended up confusing the referees themselves and led to an evident deterioration in the quality of refereeing and in the criteria applied in certain situations. We all strive for a clear standardisation of refereeing criteria: what is a penalty, what is a handball, and what is a foul, a yellow-card foul, what is a red-card foul. In short, the game’s big decisions.”

Along the same lines, Villas-Boas delivered the heaviest line of the entire intervention, although he acknowledged a step back that he considered positive. The overall assessment, even so, was ruthless.

“The president of the Portuguese Football Federation is asking for time for his Refereeing Council to operate to its full extent. This first season was an evident failure,” he admitted. “There was, on their part, a stepping back regarding the position of the referees which I think was positive”

More than a circumstantial protest, the speech sought to establish an idea of structural disorientation. For the FC Porto president, the lack of uniform criteria is not just background noise in the game: it is a factor that degrades the quality of refereeing and prolongs suspicion over almost everything that happens on the pitch.

In the final part of the discussion, Villas-Boas broadened the scope of his criticism and included the media in the equation. Without absolving it of its role in the climate around refereeing, he suggested that there is media exploitation of the controversy.

“We will see next season what kind of position this two-headed leadership of the Refereeing Council will take in relation to what happened this season. It was not positive; it was difficult,” he said. “Now, it also seems evident to me that certain media groups live, in media terms, off bad refereeing decisions in order to create programmes and content that attract people. I am not saying it is your [group], but there is also, on the part of the media, an exaggeration of these decisions because they obviously cause controversy, cause chaos, bring attention and attract attention. And, in the end, they bring in revenue”

What remains, then, is a harsh portrait of a system that Villas-Boas believes needs correcting on several fronts at the same time. From the camera that fails to the criteria that waver, from the exposed referee to the amplified noise around him, the criticism was articulated to show that, in his view, Portuguese refereeing does not suffer from an isolated problem, but from a foundational and leadership failure.

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