Football: the sound system for referees will bring “transparency and understanding”, believes Antony Gautier, the boss of French referees

The referees' sound system, tested during the final of the Women's French Cup in Montpellier on Saturday, will bring "transparency and understanding of decisions", Antony Gautier, the boss of French referees, told AFP on Thursday.

“Everyone always accepts a little more what they understand and the fact of being able to communicate around the decisions taken with video assistance in refereeing is an element which can be, in my opinion, beneficial for the public, for the spectators in the stadiums, for the television viewers, because it is a process of transparency,” explained Gautier.

The sound system for the referees to explain their decision-making after the use of VAR will therefore be inaugurated on Saturday in Montpellier during the final of the Women's French Cup between PSG and Fleury, then will also be put in place during the play-offs of the D1 Arkéma, on May 12 and 19, as well as during the final of the men's French Cup, between PSG and Lyon, on May 25 in Lille.

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If the Professional Football League (LFP) is in favor of implementing this system in Ligue 1 from next season, it is still suspended from its technical feasibility in the stadiums so that the sound is recovered and the referee can explain to the public its decisions. “When everything is technically ready, the referees who officiate in professional competitions will also be ready. They have been trained in this since February,” explains Gautier, who sees in the sound system of the game directors an additional lever to make the use of VAR, criticized in recent months, clearer.

“I only have one wish, and that is to break down the barriers around arbitration, which has nothing to hide. Hearing the referee provide public explanations on a decision that impacts the progress of a match, I am convinced that it can only be beneficial for those who follow this match,” he believes. Concretely, the field referee will have a microphone that his VAR assistant will open remotely when he has to explain his decision. The rest of the meeting, this microphone will remain closed.

“Are affected by this experiment,” Gautier further details, “are the 4 cases that exist in the video assistance protocol: goals scored, direct exclusions, penalty situations and possible identity errors.”