A Belgian Pro League match between Anderlecht and Genk will be replayed in full due to a video assistant referee (VAR) error, after the country’s disciplinary council for professional football ruled in favour of a Genk appeal on the grounds of a misapplication of the laws of the game.
The decision, believed to be the first of its kind in European football, could set a precedent after an initial ruling by the refereeing body that there would be no replay was challenged on appeal by Genk, whose request for another game was upheld by the senior group. In October, the Premier League refused to countenance a replay of Liverpool’s defeat at Tottenham despite VAR mistakenly failing to overturn an on-field decision to rule out a Luis Díaz goal for offside.
After the 2-1 defeat at Anderlecht on 23 December, Genk filed a complaint with the Belgian referee departmentthat an incorrect VAR decision had been made after a penalty kick.
🖥️ Le VAR accorde un penalty au KRC Genk
— Eleven Belgium (FR) (@ElevenBeFR) December 23, 2023
❌ Kasper Schmeichel arrête le penalty
⚽️ Yira Sor marque sur le rebond
🙅♂️ Le VAR annule le but
Qu'est-ce qui vient de se passer ? 😅 #ANDGNK pic.twitter.com/Cz8jbSYzZx
The Genk winger Yira Sor had fired in from a rebound past Anderlecht’s goalkeeper Kasper Schmeichel seconds after Bryan Heynen’s penalty miss. The goal was ruled out after a VAR check. Replays showed Sor was inside the penalty area. However, the replays also showed encroachment, with two Anderlecht players inside the penalty area as the spot-kick was being taken. The penalty kick should have been retaken.
“The disciplinary council for professional football has ruled that the Anderlecht – KRC Genk match at the end of last year should be replayed,” read a Genk statement. The disciplinary council initially declared itself competent to rule on the matter. This overturned the earlier decision of the refereeing body not to replay the match. Sections of matches have been replayed before after refereeing errors, including the England Under-19 women’s team replaying the final seconds of a Euro qualifier in 2015 when Leah Williamson’s late penalty had been incorrectly ruled out for encroachment and the game restarted with a Norway free-kick rather than a retake.
The Genk overrule centres on VAR acknowledging there were players from both teams in the box but then getting the law wrong, though last month saw Club Brugge lose their appeal to have a game replayed after Igor Thiago’s goal against Mechelen was wrongly ruled out for offside.
“The Council then followed Genk’s argument that the match officials misapplied the rules at the penalty phase in question,” continued the statement. A misapplication of the rules that affects a match’s result, by the laws of the game, should result in a replay. Belgium’s refereeing body had initially ruled the match should not be replayed as they regarded the incident as a VAR error rather than a misapplication of the law.
In October, after the errors made by VAR at Tottenham, Jürgen Klopp, the Liverpool manager, said: “I think the only outcome should be a replay. That’s how it is. It probably will not happen. The argument against that will probably be if you open that gate then everybody will ask for it. I think the situation is that unprecedented that a replay would be the right thing.”
No offer of a replay was forthcoming from the Premier League despite a full apology from Howard Webb, head of Professional Game Match Officials Limited, the English referees’ ruling body.
