The scene occurs in almost every game. At the end of each half, the players of one team surround the refereeing quartet and rebuke him, reproaching him for his mistakes.. Lately, even, the recriminations are increasingly violent. Perhaps because the errors, the deficiencies in the conduct of the game and the duality of criteria are also increasingly evident, decisive and unbearable. In Argentine soccer, no one believes in the referees anymore. So what happens happens.
For these hours, leaders, players and technical directors are convinced that the low quality of the current team of referees in the First Division has irreparably distorted the progress of the Professional League championship. And although no one dares to affirm it in public, the decision to lower the relegations to the First National from three to two was based on that conviction. They believe that both the annual table and the average table have been distorted by mistaken decisions that successively have been benefiting and harming the different participating teams.
Bad arbitrations are an endemic problem that football in our country has not been able to solve for a century. In the 1920s, in the midst of amateurism, there were judges who directed armed forces to protect themselves from virulent protests and attempted attacks by players and fans. AND in 1948, a full squad of British referees was imported to renew the credibility of championships ruined by the bad faith with which some Argentines led for the benefit of the traditional big five and to the detriment of the so-called small teams or those with less convocation or political weight.
Now it hasn’t gotten that far. Still. But The current list of referees in the two most important categories is extremely technically deficient, many times also physically, and does not arouse any reliability in the protagonists. Not even Fernando Rapallini and Facundo Tello, who have just led the World Cup in Qatar, have the support or approval of the majority. Perhaps because they do not have the personality, driving ability and even “the street” of other historical referees such as Angel Norberto Coerezza, Roberto Goicoechea, Humberto Dellacasa, Arturo Ithurralde, Ricardo Calabria and Juan Carlos Loustau (to mention just a few) who were right and they were wrong like anyone else. But that they inspired respect and credibility just by entering a field.
These same referees, who are questioned for their poor form and their often unusual mistakes, are also responsible for the operation of a technologically inadequate VAR that, far from solving old problems, has created new ones. In this context contaminated by suspicion, championships, cup classifications and relegations are determined. For this reason, the players and the technicians are increasingly fussy. They have stopped believing in the referees and doubt everything, even the successes. And then any spark leads to a fire.