It is not news that water polo has been lagging behind many other sports for years, and the use of VAR technology is a special story.
Without the right angle, with a certain zoom where it is difficult to make out anything, the help of video technology in this sport looks a bit ridiculous. However, all this is negligible in view of the decision made by the Montenegrin judge Veselin Mišković and his Romanian colleague Adrijan Aleksandrescu.
The second quarter of the classic between Italy and Hungary was played in the quarter-finals of the Olympic Games in Paris, Francesco Condemi shot, scored a goal, and at the moment when he dropped the ball, he caught Hungarian Szilard Jansik, who was guarding him.
At that moment, it seemed that the Italian equalized at 3:3, but after the use of VAR, the referees made an unexpected decision - the goal was disallowed, Kondemi earned a "brutality" (exclusion for four minutes), and Hungary received a five-pointer to increase the lead .
"The day water polo died", was the description of the video posted by the specialized site "Total water polo".
Italy even played excellently for four minutes with one player less, but in the end they were defeated after penalty kicks. After the match, the legendary "setebel" coach Alessandro Campagna was angry with the pair of referees.
"I don't want to think that there was a bad intention, but how is a violent game possible when a player is shooting. At that moment he is concentrating, he is shooting and you can't stop your hand - a really unacceptable decision. Maybe the referees were influenced because there was blood, but you can also cut yourself with less contact," Campagna said, as reported by Italian media.
Bonus video:
