The disciplinary committee of the Belgian Football Federation announced today, in an unprecedented ruling, the decision to repeat the match between Anderlecht and Genkplayed on December 23 by the First Division of that country, due to a referee error that was not corrected by the VAR.
The Federation’s resolution responds to a lawsuit filed by Genk, which accused a misinterpretation of the regulations by the match judge and those responsible for the VAR.
The incident happened 22 minutes into the first half, when the match, which was ultimately a 2-1 victory for Anderlecht, was still 0-0.
The referee awarded a penalty in favor of Genk and midfielder Bryan Heynen took charge. And although Kasper Schmeichel, the rival’s goalkeeper, blocked the shot, winger Yira Sor grabbed the rebound and made it 1-0 in favor of the visitor.
However, Nathan Verboomen, the match judge, decided to annul it due to an invasion by Sor, but what neither the referee nor the VAR noticed is that, at the same time, there was also an invasion by Anderlecht midfielder Yari Verschaeren. For this reason, the penalty should have been retaken.
In a statement, Genk announced, as an injured club, the decision of the Federation’s disciplinary committee to repeat the match, which must be resumed from the moment of the error, alleging that Verboomen made a mistake “in the application of the regulations” and that ” influenced the development of the match”, since the error was not corrected from the VAR room either.
In the first instance, the referee department of the Belgian Football Federation decided that there were no reasons to repeat the match, considering that it was a referee error “in the appreciation of a fact of the game” and not “in the application of the rules of the game,” according to the Belga news agency.
However, Genk appealed the decision and now the Federation’s disciplinary committee agreed with them.
Since the arrival of VAR in football, It is the first time that a ruling has been made worldwide in favor of repeating a meeting.
Source: Ambito
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