VAR on Dragao was without power for 14 minutes, and the reserve was exhausted.

The video refereeing system at the Dragão Stadium in Porto was out of power for 14 minutes at the FC Porto Aroca match of the fourth round of the First League, and the reserve support was exhausted, the Portuguese Football Federation (FPF) announced this Monday. . ).

In a statement sent to Lusa, the FPF Arbitration Board (CA) reported technical information regarding the use of a mobile phone by arbitrator Miguel Nogueira to evaluate a possible penalty against Iranian Mehdi Taremi, who indicated that he reversed the decision without viewing images of the auction held at 90+6 minutes .

The AC confirmed a communication and video failure in the referee’s field of view (RRA) in the 87th minute of the match played on Sunday at the blue and white stadium, as well as an appeal in connection with this failure to “mobile equipment available in all stadiums, to contact the video judging center at Cidade no Futebol.”

“After analyzing the incident, technicians concluded that the only available electrical outlet in the stadium’s repair area had no electrical current and that the backup power system, also known as UPS (Uninterruptible Power Supply) went out during the game,” the statement reads. statement.

According to the same source, “this outlet has no backup or auxiliary power,” and due to a power outage, “the process of transferring equipment to a second backup power system (UPS) with service has begun.” was fully restored at 101 minutes.”

Despite a 14-minute “outage” in the referee’s field of view, on the pitch “the technical solution that links Cidade do Futebol to Estádio do Dragão did not reveal any failure”, assured the CA, which ensured the use of VAR in the First League “uses certified technologies, used in several international competitions.

“VAR was introduced in Portugal in May 2017 and has a 99.8% uptime,” CA emphasizes.

Without access to the images, referee Miguel Nogueira contacted the coaches of both teams to announce the decision to cancel the said penalty. This action was contested immediately after the game by FC Porto who protested the match.

FC Porto filed a protest with the league delegates in order to annul the game with Aroca. This measure is based on the actions of the judge at the time of the cancellation, after the phone call and without access to the images of the entry. penalty awarded by the referee for the foul by Mehdi Taremi,” FC Porto said in a statement.

At the same time, the White-Blues believe that the referee of the match, Miguel Nogueira, committed a “violation of the rules of the game”.

“The actions of Miguel Nogueira represent a violation of the rules of the game and a legal error that could potentially seriously affect the outcome of the match,” concludes the club.

After this episode, the Dragons will once again have a new maximum penalty that Galeno wasted at 90+15 before Evanilson ended a 1-1 draw at 90+19 after Cristo Gonzalez put Aroca ahead at 84.