Former FIFA referee Christina Unkel fears UEFA could be going down a ‘slippery slope’ if they were to issue definitive proof that they were right to disallow Julian Alvarez’s penalty against Real Madrid last night.
The defending champions progressed to the quarter finals, where they will face Arsenal, after a hugely controversial night at the Riyadh Air Metropolitano.
Conor Gallagher scored the only goal of the evening in the opening minute which was enough to send the match to a penalty shootout after a goalless period of extra time.
Carlo Ancelotti’s side held their nerve in a tense shootout but they enjoyed a huge slice of luck when Alvarez’s effort was ruled out after it was determined by semi-automated technology.
Unlike when the system is used to determine offsides in a matter of seconds, UEFA chose not to issue an image that definitely proved Alvarez had made contact with the ball twice.
Brazilian media did release footage that appeared to offer conclusive proof, but that still wasn’t enough for many fans to conclude that the correct decision had been made.
Asked why the European governing body were so reluctant to put defintiive images into the public domain, Unkel told CBS Sport: ‘There’s going to be these kinds of situations and I always kind of laugh because laws are changed and impacted when things happen in UEFA competition and when things happen in Premier League.
‘In this kind of situation as a decision maker as to what kind of information they put out, what kind of data and support, you’re kind of dancing around a slippery slope situation.
‘If you put out information saying here are the angles they’ve decided on, here are the calibration levels, here’s where the kick-point was indicated by the semi-automated technology, this is why the referee makes the decision on X, Y and Z then you get into the slippery slope argument.
‘If everyone disagrees on an offside situation with a toenail they will demand for that communication and transparency and clarity.
‘That’s not helpful when you’ve got people saying we want to know the answers, everyone asks why can’t they explain it on the microphone.
Unkel did concede that on this occasion, given the magnitude of the situation, that it would have been helpful for fans to have been given more information.
She added: ‘I wish it was a bit more demonstrative, even though it’s a factual situation that the referee, because of the gravity and significance, was a little bit more demonstrative to show that it was a VAR overturning and a cancellation of the decision.
‘It’s going to be difficult and UEFA is very, very clean in what they do. They may determine it’s too much of a slippery slope to show those types of calibration without saying you guys created the system, you need to trust the system, this is what happened.’