Who thought we had seen everything from Nathan Verboomen? In STVV-KAA Gent he was again involved in a strange phase.
Verboomen will be haunted for a while by the Anderlecht-Genk match to be replayed, but there was also a point of discussion this week. The STVV fans only had one word for referee Verboomen at Gerkens’ opening goal for KAA Gent: amateur.
He got in the way of Ito, allowing Ghent to gain possession of the ball and play out the counter. A nice goal by Gerkens, but it really shouldn’t have been there. In the end it was 4-1 for the Canaries, otherwise we might have to look again to see whether a mistake had been made against the rules.
Ex-referee Stéphane Bréda is clear about the phase in La Capitale. “Technically, the referee must stop play if he touches the ball,” it said. This is not formally stated in the rules, but according to Bréda it would demonstrate common sense.
“No one would have blamed him for that. But from the moment he does not have the correct reflex, he can no longer intervene when the goal is scored and neither can the VAR.”