MPs summon VAR over controversial São Paulo v Palmeiras derby calls | OneFootball

The arbitration of the classic match between São Paulo and Palmeiras last Sunday (5), at Morumbi, continues to be a topic of discussion.

On the evening of last Tuesday (7), federal deputy Júlio Lopes (PP-RJ) summoned the VAR referee of the Choque-Rei, Ilbert Estevam da Silva, to provide clarifications about his performance and decisions to the Sports Commission of the Federal Chamber, which is investigating possible irregularities regarding match-fixing.

In a video posted on his social media, the Rio de Janeiro parliamentarian justifies his decision to call Silva, claiming that “something strange” occurred. Additionally, the deputy urged the CBF to release the VAR audios of the classic, a public demand from the Tricolor.

“The goal is to ensure the credibility of national football and prevent errors from compromising the results of decisive matches,” says a note released by Lopes' advisory. “Fans and officials pressured for transparency, a fact that led public authorities to involve the case in the legislative sphere. Ilbert's testimony will be important to explain the procedures adopted and the reasons why certain plays were not reviewed on the field monitor,” it continues.

“The investigation process gains relevance due to the seriousness of the suspicions raised. The search for clarifications also reinforces the request for the audios and communication records between the refereeing team to be disclosed,” the deputy points out in the note.

“Besides the institutional demand, the episode serves as a warning for future matches and for the improvement of VAR protocols in Brazil. The pressure from the Legislative Power can accelerate debates on transparency and the professionalization of national refereeing, bringing direct impacts to all clubs involved in the competitions,” says Lopes.

TRICOLOR'S TOTAL PRESSURE FOR TRANSPARENCY

The CBF seems to have changed its mind and, in the name of transparency and fairness, will try to meet São Paulo's request to make public the VAR audios of the five controversial plays of the classic against Palmeiras last Sunday (5), at Morumbi, for the Brazilian Championship.

Information from the afternoon of this Tuesday (7), obtained by AVANTE MEU TRICOLOR, indicates that the highest entity of Brazilian football will ask FIFA for authorization to release and disclose these audios.

According to what the CBF informed the Morumbi club, this authorization is necessary because the VAR did not recommend a review of the field referee's decision.

The response comes after São Paulo officially requested the entity this morning to release the VAR audios in the five controversial plays they complained about.

And, mainly, the change in CBF's stance happens after the football executive Rui Costa listened to the audios along with the Arbitration Commission's leadership last Monday (6).

Costa was chosen by the board to participate in the meeting with Rodrigo Cintra, president of the CBF's National Arbitration Commission, and the VAR's technical manager, Péricles Bassols. The main objective was to clarify to the Tricolor director the controversial decisions of referee Ramon Abatti Abel and the video oversight responsible, Ilbert Estevam da Silva, in the classic against Palmeiras last Sunday (5), at Morumbi, for the Brazilian Championship.

The meeting took place after the highest football entity sided with São Paulo in the complaints and announced the indefinite suspension of the two referees. The goal was to show Costa the audios of Abel's conversation with Silva in five key plays pointed out by the Tricolor, which cannot be made public due to the VAR protocol (only reviewed decisions are disclosed), even with President Julio Casares' request for an exception due to the seriousness of the incident.

At this point, the Tricolor's alarm can indeed be seen as exaggerated, as Palmeiras claims, given that even the audios not published by the CBF end up being made available to the clubs through a private forum on the internet, as a way to clarify the referees' decisions and provide more transparency.

Even so, Rui Costa spent about an hour virtually meeting with those responsible for Brazilian football referees and learned, in addition to Abel's decisions with the VAR through the conversations, the response and evaluations of Cintra and Bassols.

In two of the plays complained about by São Paulo, the justifications for not marking are known.

In the most scandalous mistake, the failure to award a clear penalty on Gonzalo Tapia, when the São Paulo team was already leading the game 2-0, at the beginning of the second half, the conversation between Abel and Silva concluded that the Chilean forward was far away, wouldn’t reach the ball, and that, moreover, the Palmeiras player Allan accidentally slipped, hence hitting the Tricolor player.

Regarding the high-foot tackle by Andreas Pereira on Marcos Antônio, moments later, which was liable for a red card, the argument is that the Palmeiras player got the ball first.

As AVANTE MEU TRICOLOR found out, what most outraged the São Paulo directors was the fact that in none of the two most crucial plays of the five complained about, Silva recommended Abel to go and review the plays. Worse than that, the field referee showed no certainty in his decisions in any of the plays and purely relied on his video colleague, without any effort to review or reconsider the incidents.

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