Edson Álvarez’s action against Michal Sadílek in last Sunday’s competition match between FC Twente and Ajax (1-1) remains a topic for discussion. The midfielder of Ajax gave his opponent a tap on the back of the head, out of sight of referee Dennis Higler. VAR Jochem Kamphuis decided not to intervene and Higler thought it was ‘more of a push’ for the ESPN cameras afterwards and insisted that it should have been ‘absolutely not a red card’. Former referee Mario van der Ende criticizes the gradations regarding such decisions and also the lack of uniformity within the KNVB. “Hitting is hitting, that’s how it should be. Finished.”
The rules roughly dictate that a player who strikes is “committed to an act of violence unless the amount of force used is negligible.” Referee coordinator Reinold Wiedemeijer pointed out to ESPN on Sunday evening that Álvarez’s tap had “no violent impact” and that the VAR does not intervene if there is at most a yellow card, although he also said that “there are enough umpires and VARs who do intervene and receive a red card.” Pull’. “That surprised me even more than the decision itself,” Van der Ende said on Tuesday General Newspaper. “Come on.”
“This does indicate that there is no uniformity. It is crazy for words that you can say this in a KNVB suit.” Van der Ende thinks it’s crazy that nowadays people speak in gradations when a player hits another player. “Soon we will ask ourselves whether it is hard or soft enough. That we say to a hard boy: ‘Ah, he can take this’. He just slaps him on the back of the head and that doesn’t belong on a football field. Any sane person can see that.”
The rule of the game comes from the IFAB (International Refereeing Commission) and is not only written in this way in the Netherlands. According to Van der Ende, it only creates crookedness and a gray area. “The rules of the game are there to provide clarity, right? I don’t like terms like ‘the spirit of the match’ or ‘grey area’. No, I want the rules of the game to be applied. I think that Higler and Wiedemeijer are still scratching their heads after their interviews.”
Van der Ende believes that Wiedemeijer, who is responsible for clarifying the rules of the game, cannot say that other referees would have drawn red in such a case. “This means that there are gaps in the training and supervision. Then there is arbitrariness.” The former arbitrator thinks it is a bad thing that ‘the amount of force’ in the rule book is open to interpretation. “Negligible, who decides that? That cannot be fixed. To hit is to hit, that’s how it should be. Finished.”
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