Two seasons ago, there was a relative balance in refereeing errors in the Sporting, Benfica and FC Porto games – and the “reds” could not complain as much as they did at the time. Two seasons ago, the three divided the share of errors even better in the different categories – one led in penalties, another in reds, another in disallowed goals. Last year, he went to FC Porto. This season, it is up to Sporting to complain a little more – even if not much.
This is the conclusion of the sum of errors pointed out in the weekly chronicles by Pedro Henriques, PÚBLICO specialist who evaluates the referees in the “big three” games.
This year, as in others, things end up balancing out and everyone has reasons to complain here and there. And those who complain the most in another season end up “putting their guitar in the bag” the following year.
Sporting, the national champion, is, curiously enough, the one who may complain the most about 2023/24, especially in terms of penalties to be awarded. Another relevant conclusion is that, in general, there were fewer refereeing errors than in other seasons.
Before moving on to the detailed analysis, it is important to clarify that the analysis involves the compilation of Pedro Henriques’ weekly opinions and that it includes the direct accounting of errors and successes, without the subjective and immeasurable dimension of the weight of a penalty in a given game or the impact of an expulsion at that moment in the match – or even the fatality of a badly disallowed goal, for example.
The exercise does not help to define who could have been champion if the referees got everything they analyzed right, but it does at least help to understand the more or less equitable distribution of errors.
Penalties to be awarded
In the penalty shootout category, Sporting had five infringements to be flagged in their favor and one wrongly flagged in favor of an opponent. On the other hand, there was only one bad thing noted in his favor and one to be noted in favor of his opponent. In the end, he lost.
And that didn’t happen with FC Porto (it ended up with more benefit than loss) and Benfica (it ended up with a zero “account” between mistakes and successes).
From the perspective of red cards, Sporting has a record of zero, with a balance between benefit and loss, while FC Porto and Benfica have some red cards to show off to their players – six for the “dragons” and five for the “reds”, without the losses offsetting this record.
Note also the fact that FC Porto had a very high number of reds (nine) and that this value, in an ideal scenario of correct decisions, could have been 16.
In the field of disallowed goals there were very few refereeing errors, courtesy of the introduction of VAR, which practically eliminated this type of error. There were, however, two goals to be invalidated against Sporting and another two against Benfica.
Some “dark” journeys
On closer analysis, there were some interesting cases. There were situations such as the bad red shown to Diomande against Arouca could not be reversed by the VAR, as it was a second yellow, such as a red for showing to David Carmo against Vizela – which in addition to being a second yellow was a case of protests , which would not fit into the VAR protocol.
On round 12 there were fertile arbitrations in important moves. At Famalicão-FC Porto, a penalty for scoring against the “dragons”, a red for showing Evanilson and a good show for Zaidu. In Moreirense-Benfica, there was a red for showing the Minho team. At Sporting-Gil Vicente, two goals were well disallowed for the “lions” and another in which an offensive foul was called for on Gyökeres’ goal – Pedro Henriques says it is an interpretation.
Note also for the 18th round, in which Pedro Henriques pointed out serious errors in all games: two penalties not awarded at Vizela-Sporting, one at FC Porto-Moreirense and a poorly validated goal at Benfica-Boavista.
There were also two curious cases. Aderllan was sent off for a double yellow card at Benfica-Rio Ave, on matchday 17, but only the second card was justified, a similar case to that of Régis at Estrela-Benfica. They were, therefore, both badly sent off, even though the infraction that led to the expulsion justified the yellow card shown at that time.
FC Porto also had two very rich games. With Desp. Chaves there was a penalty to signal in favor of each team and a red to show to Desp. Keys. With Boavista, there was a penalty to be awarded in favor of each team, a red to be shown to Boavista and a red to be shown to the Boavista fans.
In the end, everyone can complain, but the national champion may complain a little more. Since he won, he won’t.
