Former FIFA Referee and Video Assistant Referee (VAR) instructor Jerome Damon has explained why Pyramids’ goals against Orlando Pirates were ruled out.
Pyramids had scored two goals in the first leg at FNB Stadium, but both were ruled out after VAR review. Fiston Mayele scored from an offside position, while Sodiq Awujoola netted via a hand ball in the second half.
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After the match, Pyramids coach Krunoslav Jurcic was frustrated with the decisions of the match officials, but Damon explained the referee together with the VAR made the correct call in both situations
“Just before half-time the referee was called for an on-field review, to review a possible offside decision,” he said on social media when discussing the goal by Mayele.
“From review VAR saw that the player was in an offside decision, the [Pyramids] attacker who scored the goal [Mayele]…
“There was an action by the Orlando Pirates defender [Mbokazi] in the process leading up to the goal which needed to be checked, that’s why there was an onside review by the VAR officials, to interpret whether the Orlando Pirates player was in control of his body action…
“The referee then deemed the Orlando Pirates player was not in control of his body reaction, therefor it was then deemed a deflection and because it was a deflection which went to a player in an offside decision, the referee correctly ruled offside gaining an advantage.
“It was a very good decision, very good intervention by VAR and very good implementation of the laws of the game.”
Damon then also explained that the decision around Pyramids’ second goal was correctly handled by the match officials and VAR.
“Another goal check and like we know with VAR, every goal needs to be checked to see if there was no offence in the lead-up to the goal,” he added.
“The VAR checked everything and they saw that the ball had come of the attackers arm before the ball had gone directly into goal.
“Therefor correctly in terms of law, a handball offence had been committed and the refereeing team had correctly ruled that that was unfortunately a no-goal situation.
“Again, good application of law by the refereeing team, and good application of VAR by the CAF VAR.”
