The rude arbitration error that sparked the controversy: Sporting Cristal calls for the use of the VAR from the first phase of the Libertadores

*The great controversy in the match between Unión Católica and Sporting Cristal

This Tuesday, Unión Católica won 2-1 in Chile against Sporting Cristal in a match corresponding to the second date of Group H of the Copa Libertadores that was defined in additional time by a badly charged penalty by referee Leodán González. The Peruvian club then demanded that the South American Football Confederation (Conmebol) reveal the use of VAR and implement it from the first stages of the continental competition.

The fact is that the Uruguayan referee sanctioned an alleged hand in the area of the Peruvian team defender Percy Liza who had actually hit the arm of Nehuén Paz, a player from the University of Chile who had gone to head a corner kick. This sparked the anger of Sporting Cristal who on Wednesday sent a letter to Alejandro Domínguez, the boss of South American football.

“The arbitral ruling in favor of our rival in the final minutes of the match was evident, confirmed with the clear images of the match broadcast, which means a great effect on our club, considering that a penalty was imposed against us, after a clear use of the hand of a player from the rival team,” he said. in his writing the Peruvian ensemble in reference to the controversial move. In this regard, he demanded “that appropriate measures be taken and that the necessary sanctions be given to the arbitration team that was responsible for this”.

Likewise, the president of Sporting Cristal, Joel Raffo Oclese, who signed the letter, asked Conmebol “to make every effort to finally implement the use of VAR as soon as possible in the competition, with the aim of reducing and/or eliminating the risks of make gross mistakes”. It is that Conmebol has decided to use technology from the round of 16, which is why it is more likely that this type of error will be more frequent in the group stage.

The penalty won by Leodán González was converted in the 92nd minute of the match by Argentine Fernando Zampedri and in this way Unión Católica scored his first victory in Group H that Flamengo leads with 6 points and has Talleres de Córdoba with 3 and Sporting Cristal without points in two presentations.

“It's a criminal inventing. The referee made it up,” said angrily after the match Yosimar Yotún, one of the stars of the Peruvian team, who added: “We are a serious institution that never talks about referees, but in this match they invented a penalty at the last minute that spoils everything we did. We leave very upset with what happened,” he added.

Sporting Cristal's letter to Conmebol:

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