VAR… penalty

The inauguration of the use of VAR in Greece was combined with its use by the German referee in the phase when the ball hit the hand of Kanye. The two referees of Master Ref, K. Akridas and Herpes. Chikinis say it was a difficult phase, but they think it could be a penalty shootout, and they are positioned on the effectiveness of VAR.

Cup Final: PAOK - AEK 1-0, Referee: Felix Schweier, Referees: Kostas Akridas, Iraklis Tsikinis.

Costas Akridas:

"In general we had good refereeing, but in a game with no meaning, no world, nothing ...

The only difficult phase of the fight was the hand of Kanye. For me it's a 70-30 penalty, because yes the ball hits the foot first and then the hand, but the PAOK player's hand is not in the normal position and it changes the course of the ball.

The VAR apparently did not help the referee change his mind. This phase has proven that VAR is not a panacea and it will not be easy to quell protests and passions. First of all there must be good faith. If he was a Greek referee and he did not give this penalty we would have terrible problems even if there was a VAR. Unfortunately in Greece there is a terrible bad faith and I am very afraid that something will not change with the VAR, due to the Greek… culture of protest and suspicion. I do not want to be a fortune teller but I do not see the VAR working in Greece as in other European championships.

Overall, Schweier seemed to me slow in his whistles, didn't whistle immediately, had no color on the hard and simple foul on his whistle. His whistles ranged from simple to hard fouls. Only in one phase did it appear to have power when 2-3 AEK players protested for the penalty shootout and went on to grab PAOK players. He came in the middle and he seemed to have a fist and he was strong.

Otherwise the match had no other difficult phases, the players did not cause him any problems, there was no crowd on the pitch, in general it was just a good refereeing, except for the penalty phase, where I estimate that his persistence was wrong despite seeing the VAR .

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