At the refereeing seminar organized by the EAK and the KOP, the chairman of the Refereeing Committee, Antonio Damato, commented on the referees’ performance to date and acknowledged any mistakes that had been made.
He then addressed and explained specific incidents in matches, such as Kafou’s ejection against APOEL, Van Neef’s against AEL, as well as the yellow card instead of a red—as claimed by Nea Salamina—that Sastre received.
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Here is what he said in detail
Initial statement: “After five matchdays, I’m generally satisfied with the referees. Sure, mistakes were made, but the criticism is excessive. This is my second year here; I see that there has been improvement, but mistakes are part of the game.”
On VAR: “I acknowledge that there have been some mistakes by VAR—more by VAR than by the referees on the field. We have a person in front of the monitor, not a machine. Seminars are held, instructions are given—it’s to be expected that some mistakes will be made. We certainly want to improve our VAR officials. We’ve recognized this, which is why we’ve decided to bring in foreign VAR officials.”
Regarding the Kafou incident: “An investigation was conducted into this specific incident; it has been looked into, and it is a matter for the Federation—I cannot comment further.”
On Sastre and Varo: “It wasn’t a violent act as the referee deemed it, which is why he issued a yellow card, and the VAR official couldn’t intervene.”
On Van Nistelrooy’s red card against AEL: “Yes, it was a strange play; the Anorthosis player did slip, but he was charging in with a lot of force, and we saw what happened to the AEL player. The instructions given to referees are that if they go up to a player and see a broken leg, they are instructed to issue a red card.”
