Sporting CP have asked the league’s general assembly on Tuesday to allow the recording of the referee’s conversations, including the video referee, as evidence in disciplinary proceedings.
“According to the opinion we requested, the Arbitration Board (AC) understood that the proposals presented to the General Assembly do not comply with FIFA and IFAB guidelines. Based on this assumption, the matter was brought up for discussion by the members, who sovereignly decided to abide by this decision and not approve the proposals of Sporting, said Paulo Rozeira, legal director of the League of Portugal, at the end of the Assembly.
BOLA had access to the opinion of the Arbitration Board circulated among the representatives of the professional clubs at the General Assembly. It is believed that “a question of such great importance deserved deeper reflection, since the time allotted for pronunciation is clearly not enough for an adequate and detailed presentation of it,” but it is immediately indicated that “the proposed rules seem illegal.” , natural from the point of view of the Law, and unacceptable, taking into account the mandatory rules of IFAB and FIFA.
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“In an email dated June 4, 2022, Your Excellency. informs the Arbitration Board that a proposal to amend the Disciplinary Regulations has been submitted by a member of the League of Portugal proposing amendments to Article 13, al. h), as well as the introduction of a new Article 15a.
With regard to Article 13, al. h) The proposed amendment aims to include as part of the basic principles of disciplinary proceedings a guarantee of access by the accused within 24 hours not only to the records of the arbitration panel’s communication systems, but also to communications between the chief arbitrator and the VAR.
The new Article 15-A, which has, let’s say, everything but the content of the disciplinary rule, specifies that entries between elements of the judging panel must be recorded, and also states that such entries will be used to evaluate members of the judging panel, for their training, for evidence in disciplinary proceedings and to provide them to the club that requests it, in relation to the games in which they participated.
In other words, if in article 13 we are still moving in the area of the disciplinary process – and final access to these records can only be granted in this context – in article 15.º-A the possibilities are endless, as it gives the club the opportunity to request, without further ado , accessing records without any reason or justification that justifies it.
Following the announcement of such proposals, Your Excellency. requests “that this Arbitration Board conduct a competent analysis and assessment and inform us of the legality / or incompatibility of the above proposals in accordance with the current rules”, also mentioning that “June 7th General Assembly of the discussion of the above proposals, therefore it is extremely important that your considerations be brought to the League of Portugal by the 6th of this month.”
First of all, it should be noted that an issue of such great importance deserved a deeper understanding, and the time allotted for a speech is clearly not enough for an adequate and detailed presentation of it.
In any case, the proposed rules seem illegal, naturally from the point of view of the Law, and unacceptable from the point of view of the mandatory instructions of the IFAB and FIFA, as we shall see.
Access to audio from the refereeing team and between the refereeing team and VAR is considered inadmissible before IFAB and FIFA. 18 IFAB of 7 April 2020, states that “It was also agreed that a greater understanding of the decision-making process, such as access to conversation between match officials during review, is not appropriate at this stage, but that more effort should be made to improve existing communication approaches to improve understanding of the review process and the final decision of the referee.” Following this circular, FIFA also issued a circular dated September 3, 2020, addressed to all refereeing boards of all football federations, expressly stating that the transfer of any records of this type is prohibited and that any failure to comply with this definition will be understood as a violation of the VAR protocol.
This position of IFAB and FIFA has not changed yet.
In the same way, there is no other federation that provides unconditional access to the records of the judging panel.
Thus, it is clear that the sporting community that regulates this issue clearly determines the impossibility of providing these records and that the approval of the proposed norms would constitute a violation of the VAR protocol with the ensuing consequences.
On the other hand, it is important to note that there is a difference between having a person with jurisdictional authority to attach a certain record – if one exists, of course – and being able to request access to the same without any reason or reason.
It should also be noted that Article 15-A governs matters strictly within the competence of the Arbitration Board. In fact, Article 45, No. 1 of the Legal Regime of Sports Federations provides that “The Arbitration Board, without prejudice to other powers granted by the statute, coordinates and manages arbitration activities, sets the parameters for the training of athletes. judges and proceed with their technical classification”, therefore, a rule of this kind in regulating issues related to the evaluation and training of judges, proposed by the Sports Society, seems illegal.
On the other hand, this Article 15-A appears only and only as a gateway to all audio recordings that exist, either between the VAR and the judging panel, or between elements of the judging panel, without any basis, even disciplinary ones. trial in progress. Thus, without this causal connection with any disciplinary process, this article is also inadmissible due to the lack of competence of the General Assembly of the League to approve it within the framework of the Disciplinary Regulations.
In fact, there are reasonable doubts that such access would be compatible with the personal data protection regime.
Other considerations, in view of the apparent illegality and inadmissibility of the proposed amendments, remain in the background, but which cannot be ignored, relate to the incomprehensible 24-hour period for access to records, the cost of implementation and maintenance of which is not even expected by the Portuguese League or the period during which these records must be kept.
These considerations, as we said, are secondary, they only show the complete absence of logic and justification for the proposals now being proposed.
In view of the foregoing, we believe that these proposals should be immediately rejected under the threat of illegality and violation of the VAR protocol with the ensuing consequences.”
