“What’s the matter with those people, dude?”

Tuesday, December 21, 2021 at 23:38• Dominic Mostert • Last update: 23:43

Danny Buijs does not agree with the red card that Neraysho Kasanwirjo received on Tuesday evening in the match between AZ and FC Groningen (1-0). The visitors’ central defender was sent off in the third minute by referee Martin van den Kerkhof after a foul on Dani de Wit. Buijs, Groningen’s trainer, put off a general tirade about the conduct of the arbitration afterwards. He himself received a yellow card in the first half and is not happy about that.

“Let me not say too much about that, because then you have a disciplinary committee hanging on your pants”, Buijs responds to his card. “But those fourth officials, that is really to cry. With what intention do those people come to the game? You have to understand that there is emotion at some point? There was no swear word, nothing at all, but those people immediately call the ear: ‘Buijs yellow card, Buijs yellow card'”, he says with a nagging voice. “And then to the other staff members: ‘Do you also have to get a yellow card?’ Even to the doctor. What’s the matter with those people, dude? Sit down under the Christmas tree and eat an oliebol and relax. If there’s some name-calling or physical touching, I can understand. as already ‘Buijs yellow card’… Really…”

Buijs finds it disappointing that video referee Bas Nijhuis did not assert himself after Kasanwirjo’s red card. “You know that it is very decisive who the VAR is. With this VAR it has to be a thousand percent wrong, otherwise it will not correct. You have to deal with how an individual approaches it. That is sometimes in your favor and sometimes in your disadvantage.” Kasanwirjo wanted to correct a bad assumption by holding the ball away from Dani de Wit, but was too late to reach the ball and planted the studs on the side of his opponent’s calf. Van den Kerkhof did not hesitate for a moment and awarded a red card. It was the earliest red card in the Eredivisie since February 3, 2015, when Jetro Willems was shown red after 29 seconds. That is still the league record. Video referee Nijhuis saw no reason to call Van den Kerkhof to the screen to reconsider his decision.

“From the side, I didn’t think it was a red card,” Buijs says in conversation with ESPN. “He takes it wrong and wants to tap the ball away. It is not a kicking movement, he does not put his leg on it. But you are dealing here with people who have not played football themselves. If you are going to play this fifteen times and slowed down… It’s a sham, he hits it.” Buijs does not agree with the comment by journalist Fresia Cousiño Arias that it is ‘easy’ to say that the arbitration itself did not play football.

“No, that’s not easy. Then you know in situations like this more often whether it was a deliberate violation, or whether someone is still trying to correct their own mistake,” replies the former midfielder. “You know that when you’ve played football. This has happened to me and many others. Does he hit him? Absolutely. Is it a violation? Absolutely. But I don’t think it’s a red card, because you know it’s not a deliberate violation. You also sees at the end that he is shocked because he is late. But okay, we have to deal with it.”

Buijs’ judgment resembles that of Kees Kwakman in the studio. “Actually, he’s trying to rectify his own ignorance, because it’s a dramatic assumption,” the analyst said of Kasanwirjo during the break. “This is an industrial accident, so to speak. I think it is severely punished. He wants to tap the ball with the tip of his foot. That’s why his studs come on so full.” Pierre van Hooijdonk saw ‘zero intention’ to hit De Wit. “He thinks he can still tap the ball away. Anyone who slomo see, will say: it is dark red. I can agree with him getting a red card, but I see zero intention.”