Gary Neville has lambasted FIFA over what he described as a 'dictatorship' after the governing body admitted that the technology used for VAR offside decisions went down during the match between Qatar and Switzerland.
VAR Technology Failure
FIFA confirmed that the semi-automatic offside technology failed before Switzerland's opening goal, which came from a penalty converted by Breel Embolo. The penalty was awarded after Remo Freuler was brought down by Qatar goalkeeper Mahmud Abunada, but replays suggested Freuler may have been offside.
The VAR reviewed the incident and ruled Freuler onside, but FIFA did not show a replay of the offside check. In a statement, FIFA said: 'During the Qatar vs. Switzerland match in the San Francisco Bay Area, a brief technical outage prevented the onside animation graphic from being generated ahead of the penalty awarded to Switzerland in the 14th minute. The issue was quickly resolved.'
FIFA added: 'The workflow of the VAR was not affected by this issue and followed the normal procedure in checking the on-field decision. The lines used by the VAR to check the position of the relevant players did not show the attacking player to be in an offside position in either of the two situations immediately before the penalty decision.'
Gary Neville's Criticism
Speaking on ITV, Gary Neville expressed his frustration: 'Offside. We all think it here. Everybody at home thinks it. FIFA are the host broadcaster and they have the semi-automatic decision that they can show us. Why are they not showing us? They did this in the last tournament. Fans are already distrusting of FIFA and technology to start with. There is a massive question over that because it is offside in my eyes until they prove me different.'
He added: 'It's like a dictator. Honestly, it's like a dictatorship, this. The idea that they hold this evidence internally and don't show fans of countries that are playing in tournaments. It's absolutely ridiculous. Honestly to not show the evidence of an offside. Prove to us it's offside. Show it straight away. Why not the transparency?'
Ian Wright's Reaction
Fellow pundit Ian Wright also criticized the lack of transparency: 'With the semi-automatic line, why haven't we seen that? We actually don't need to see it, we see it in the Premier League every week, he looks offside, I just don't understand it. They do what they want, they're sitting in the office. It's a scandal.'
