KNVB to discuss video review issues with football club Vitesse

The Dutch football federation the KNVB have agreed to meet with Vitesse Arnhem after the club brought out a statement criticizing recent decisions by the video assistant referee, otherwise known as VAR, against them. Recently Vitesse said it was frustrated by inconsistent decisions against the club in its matches against PSV Eindhoven and PEC Zwolle.

Vitesse was denied a penalty vs PSV for a handball incident on the Feb. 23, only for Zwolle to be given a penalty over a similar incident a week later against Vitesse on Feb. 29. “We accept our losses but we think it is clear to see that we have been disadvantaged by decisions,” Vitesse director Pascal Van Wijk said in a statement.

“We will be meeting Vitesse to discuss improvements for the VAR,” a spokesman for the KNVB told NL Times. “The system will never be mistake-free as it is still prone to human error, but we have numbers that do show that the VAR has made the decisions more fair across the league.”

The spokesman also claimed the KNVB are always working to improve the system. “The main decisions do not come from us regarding VAR. They come from the IFAB,” he said, referring to the International Football Association Board, which determines the rules of association football.

“But we are working hard on improving communication with the crowd and training referees to become good VAR’s”.

VAR is a very controversial system, not just in the Netherlands, but also abroad, with several big names in football speaking out against the system including the former captain of Brazil, Neymar. Nevertheless, the KNVB said it is not going away any time soon.