Many sports stakeholders have quizzed whether or not the goal-line technology works in the European FIFA World Cup qualification as it might prove costly to some teams who are at the negative end of some instances and officiating.
With such an important tournament, many have reiterated the need for VAR to assist in making accurate or judgments with little error.
In a European FIFA WC qualifier against Serbia and Portugal where both teams had scored two(2) goals, Cristiano Ronaldo found himself at a tight angle and still managed to shoot at target into an empty post but was miraculously cleared by Serbia defender and skipper Stefan Mitrovic.
Ronaldo who had seen the ball cross the line rushed to the centre referee who had already waved play on to the dismay of Ronaldo who furiously threw his captains armband onto the pitch as he walked off.
A second watch and all the replay during the game proved the Portuguese skipper had it right but had been denied three (3) vital points.
The center referee Danny Makkelie right after the match realizing the grave blunder apologized to the Portuguese team and Cristiano Ronaldo.
“As per FIFA’s policies, all I can say is that I apologised to the national coach, Mr. Fernando Santos, and to the Portuguese team for what happened, as a referee team, we always work hard to make good decisions. When we are in the news in this manner, it doesn’t make us happy at all.” Makkelie said
Would this disallowed goal come back to haunt Portugal?
Will the apology be enough to see Portugal go through to the FIFA world cup?
Portugal has been drafted with Italy in the same path of the play-offs and this would mean either of them will be missing the Qatar 2022 FIFA world cup.
Should Portugal be unable to go past this play-offs and make it to Qatar in 2022, the Portuguese nationals will never stop mentioning the name of Dutch centre referee Danny Makkelie.
