In an express ruling, Conmebol sanctioned Uruguayan referees Andrés Cunha and Esteban Ostojich on Monday for their performance in Tuesday’s match between Argentina and Brazil for the Qualifiers towards the Qatar 2022 World Cup. Both judges, suspended indefinitely, were They blame them for not having sent off Argentine defender Nicolás Otamendi for an elbow to the mouth of Brazilian striker Raphinha during the first half of the match played at the San Juan Bicentennial Stadium.
Conmebol questions Cunha, the main referee, and Ostojich, responsible for the VAR, about Otamendi’s attack on Raphinha, which was not penalized. “They have incurred in serious and manifest errors in the exercise of their functions in the development of the party, punctually in that situation,” cites the report published by the entity.
According to the statement signed by the Brazilian Wilson Seneme, president of the Conmebol Referees Commission, Otamendi incurred “violent conduct against an opponent, endangering his physical integrity with the use of his arm on his face. “.
For this reason, both Cunha and Ostojich were suspended indefinitely to direct in competitions organized by Conmebol. The same happened with the Chilean referee Roberto Tobar, who led the match that Brazil beat Colombia 1-0 last week. In that case, the agency questioned the judge for not having sanctioned two unsportsmanlike behaviors by Neymar and one by Colombian Juan Guillermo Cuadrado
The VAR video
In parallel to the sanction of the referees, Conmebol also released the video of what happened, with the original audio of what the VAR referees spoke with Cunha at the time they were reviewing Otamendi’s action. At first, the VAR judge says there is no coup, although later he changes his point of view and interprets that the coup existed, although not violently enough to warrant expulsion. “I believe that here, the blow is with the forearm in the face, with medium intensity,” says Ostojich, who estimates that Otamendi should have been reprimanded.
“This seems to me to be a foul, a yellow card, I don’t consider it a red card,” continues the Uruguayan referee, who agrees with one of his assistants. Now both of them agree, he communicates the decision to Cunha. “Complete check-up. Use of arms improper to the limit,” confirms Ostojich, who then asks for a further review to see if Otamendi’s infraction had been inside or outside the area. When he confirms that the foul was outside, he tells Cunha to resume the actions, without calling him to review the play.
According to the VAR regulations, the tool can only be used to indicate or not a penalty or to indicate an offense that warrants expulsion. In this case, although they verified that there was a foul by Otamendi and that he deserved a warning, he had not called the referee to review the action.
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