Real Sociedad, de penalti derbi: "What happened highlights the need to review and strengthen the audiovisual verification procedures of the VOR room."

On Wednesdayafternoon, the Royal Society issued an official statement expressing some thoughts on the arbitral action of the Basque derbi that the White Blue Club played on Sunday in San Mamés in front of the Athletic Club. Thus, the Guipuzcoan club, referring tothe play in which the referee Alejandro Hernández pointed out a penalty in favour of the Athletic Club, stressed that what happened shows the need to review and strengthen the procedures for audiovisual verification in the VOR Chamber.

In this context, according to the communiqué issuedby the Technical Committee of Arbitrators last Monday, 2 November, there is a technical impact on the Connected Ball system in the context of the match played on Sunday.

We believe that in the action that led to the penalty there were three different facts: first, the field referee's error of perception: he pointed out the penalty without warning that the Royal player had touched the ball before making contact with the Athletic striker; second, an error in the VOR room review procedure, where he did not identify, by analyzing the available images, the prior contact of the Royal player with the ball and the initial decision of the field referee was maintained, despite all the audio-visual means.

"Thirdly," continues the Royal, "an error in the Connected Ball system. As the Commission acknowledges, there was a gap in synchronization between one and two frames between the signal of the ball and the images used by the VAR, which caused the information provided by the system to differ from what happened on the playing field, which clearly conditioned the interpretation of the play by the team of judges and the Commission itself acknowledged that the error had occurred. "

The Royal Society notes that these three facts show that what happened cannot be limited to a specific judicial decision, nor to an isolated technical impact. This situation affects the visual review procedure of images held by the judicial team, as well as the reliability and/or calibration of a technological instrument, the use of which must provide the greatest possible accuracy and objectivity.

In this regard, the White Blue Club continues, we consider it essential to improve the response to key questions: what was the procedure for checking audio-visual media in the VOR room during the review of the play? How is the Connected Ball system calibrated and who is responsible for this calibration and ensuring its proper functioning? What monitoring mechanisms are there to detect synchronization gaps before using the system's information to make an arbitral decision?

The Royal Society states in its statement that what has happened highlights the need to review and strengthen the audio-visual verification procedures in the VOR room, and to calibrate and monitor the Connected Ball system. It is not enough to assume that there is a synchronization gap: it is essential to know why it happened, what mechanisms should have detected it, and why this information was not prevented from conditioning an arbitral decision using the audio-visual media available in the VOR room during the review of the play.

Following the release of the statement by the Royal Society , shortly thereafter, the Athletic Club has issued a new communiqué in which the Bilbaine Club stresses that to watch the referees is to watch the football.